Jamie Lee, Contributor
Waking Times
Editor’s Note: This Part III of Jamie Lee’s critical essay on the state of modern public education. Please review Part I, here, and Part II, here.
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers… Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution…” -Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
The philosophy in the school room in one generation will become the philosophy of government in the next. — Abraham Lincoln
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The two previous essays titled, The Untold History of U.S. Modern Education: The Founding Fathers and Common Core – The Business Side of the Global Education Agenda covered how the United States education system was designed and funded by the wealthy elite Robber Barron’s of the early 20th century and continue to have ever greater influence in the way our children are being educated.
The implementation of the new global education agenda uses the Common Core curriculum in public schools to get students away from traditional classroom education instruction and instead learning will come primarily from computers for their educational needs throughout our public schools. Common Core is based around “the greatest change in education in decades”, according to President Obama.
This essay, Part III, covers the global education corporation known as CORE International where big business is funneling their products and services through. Also discussed is the United Nations “Education for All” agenda.
CORE International, a privately owned corporation, works hand in glove with the United Nations and not-so-coincidentally dovetails with the same folks who are aggressively implementing their Agenda 21, TPP and ALEC plans for stated global uniformity and compliance to a one world order. CORE has been the fastest growing company in India for the past three years with over 40% growth per annum.
CORE International is already operating in over 30 country’s throughout Europe and Asia as of the end of 2013, but not more so than in the United States and England.
CORE INTERNATIONAL – Headquarters: Punjab, India. From their Annual Financial Report Introduction:
“CORE is a global end-to-end, best-of-breed education solutions provider that aims to transform the education spectrum encompassing Pre-K, K-12, Higher Education and Technical Career Education. CORE strives to improve the quality of human capital as well as the global learning ecosystem through innovation in order to produce better educational outcomes. CORE’s operations span multiple geographies globally, with its primary focus being the United States, the United Kingdom and India, and with additional operations in Asia Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
Core continued its strong growth momentum, in spite of global slowdown. During the financial year, the company’s revenue grew by an impressive 50.1% to `16,379 million ($16.3 billion), eBITDA by 60% to `6,258 million and PAT by 44% to`3,231 million.”
From CORE INTERNATIONAL’s website:
CORE is a global end-to-end, best-of-breed education solutions provider that aims to transform the education spectrum encompassing Pre-K, K-12, Higher Education and Technical Career Education. CORE strives to improve the quality of human capital as well as the global learning ecosystem through innovation in order to produce better educational outcomes. CORE’s operations span multiple geographies globally, with its primary focus being the United States, the United Kingdom and India, and with additional operations in Asia Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
Listed on the BSE & NSE with a market cap of about $700 million and rated The Fastest Growing IT Company in India, CORE Education and Technologies Ltd. is a CMMi Level5 & ISO 9001 certified organization, achieving substantial growth year after year:
Founded in 2003
Corporate Headquarters at Mumbai, India
International Headquarters at Atlanta, GA USA and London, UK
Global presence: Serving 12 States in India, 46 States in the US, 40 Institutions in UK, 8 African and 3 Caribbean Nations
Approximately 1200 employees worldwide
Exhaustive range of products and solutions spanning across all stages of education – K12, higher education and technical career training courses
CORE International was originally founded as an IT company but quickly transformed into the premier corporate vehicle for the likes of Google, Apple and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to implement a technology based learning system.
CORE International wants to control every facet of education from what teachers are hired to the biometric monitoring of students and “psycho-metric” monitoring of teachers. Testing will be graded off-site from schools as well as teacher evaluations based on how well they adopt the Common Core standards in their classrooms. Presumably, those teachers and administrators who do not adopt the CC standards would not be retained.
In nearly every business the greatest expense to the net bottom line is in human resources expense. By taking over the classroom through computer based education, teachers will become nothing more than glorified hall monitors of their students education, if big business and the global elite have their way.
Here are a few of CORE International’s educational services they already have in place in school districts across the United States:
CORE Consulting & Staffing Group (CSG)
Based in Rochester, New York. CORE CSG is a leading provider of consulting and staffing resource services to the education market. Our team of consultants also provides subject matter expertise for planning, installation, and process mapping to help school technology investments truly optimize efficiency, data capture, and ultimately improve the educational experience to the student. In addition should a school system or an Institution of higher learning desire short term and long term solution to their staffing or resource needs this division caters to that as well. Almost every department of education institutions can utilize CORE CSG staffing solutions. Our team of staffing professionals has a deep understanding of the education market as we support institutions ranging from K12 to Large Universities and Colleges. CORE CSG’s proprietary Substitute and Absence Management system provides a reliable and efficient solution to districts struggling with the logistics of maintaining the complexities of substitute screening, placement and tracking time at work.
Some of CORE’s current contracts:
UMass Selects CORE for IT Staff Augmentation CORE Consulting & Staffing was recently named as one of the winners of the (Massachusetts) UMass IT Staff Augmentation Contract. Staffing and recruitment services will be deployed from CORE’s NYC offices at 1 Penn Plaza, further expanding the footprint of CORE growing IT staffing business.This contract encompasses 5 campus locations:
UMass Amherst
UMass Boston
UMass Dartmouth
UMass Lowell
UMass Worcester
The multi-year contract also includes the President’s Office and Central Administration Building where CORE will be supporting the University year round.
CORE Consulting & Staffing has secured an exciting new opportunity as one of the staffing providers that the State of Ohio uses for all IT Staff Augmentation needs. We aid in staffing such positions as Programmer, Product Specialist, Service Desk, Database Administrator and many more! This is part of our strategic growth and expansion plan as we continue to move west from our Northeastern stronghold.
CORE Consulting & Staffing recently won a bid with the Milwaukee Public School district to staff for their fall 2013 school year. This isn’t for just a few teachers here and there; they need to hire 100 Science, Math and Special Education teachers with our help! Through our proven vetting process, we are staffing the best national talent to support this large school district of 78,000 students. Expanding the CORE Consulting & Staffing footprint to the “Brew City” is a valuable addition to our services reach.
CORE ATG To Manage All IT
Our turn-key solution provides your organization with an efficient, hassle-free computer installation. CORE ATG will manage the ordering of your systems to insure you receive exactly what your organization requires. We will receive your products at our warehouse for storage until the installation date, and prepare your systems to your specifications with our imaging and etching services. When they are ready, CORE ATG will deliver the systems to your site with our fleet of vehicles and certified computer technicians, de-install and manage the recycling of your retired systems, and install and set up your new systems all during the same day.
CORE Education Solutions Group (ESG)
Offices co-located with the CORE ECS corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. CORE ESG has established itself as a knowledgeable and experienced leader in education, generating a reputation as a true partner. CORE ESG’s initiatives range from research-based instructional materials for challenged learners – to groundbreaking innovations in diagnostic assessment, representing the very latest in psychometric applications.CORE ESG is a leading provider of assessment, intervention and special education solutions for some of the largest and most complex school systems in the US. Utilizing the cloud-based Assessment Center platform, CORE ESG offers district and states school systems the capability to administer state or Common Core aligned formative assessments, diagnostic screeners for reading and algebra readiness, cognitive growth measurement of individual students over time and response to intervention programs.
CORE ed Mastery; Instructional Management & Custom Assessment
edMastery is intended for districts and schools looking to design their instructional platform and assessment program from the ground up. As such, it is a very flexible and customizable platform for basic assessment and implementation – and can be used for instructional management and a viariety of assessment applications. Do you have needs for accreditation surveys for staff and faculty, workforce certification assessments or college readiness tests?
CORE S.A.F.E System
How fast can your teachers react to an emergency? Every second counts. Timely help for teachers is critical to resolving both small matters and life-threatening crises. The SAFE System™ provides the necessary information using Audio Enhancement’s patented infrared classroom audio system. Issues can be contained before they escalate into major incidents.The combination of Audio Enhancement and the SAFE System allows Superintendents to realize their objectives of ensuring academic achievement and student safety.
Schools of all sizes across the country are successfully using the SAFE System for the security of their teachers and students, as well as reducing liability concerns. Options are provided for prevention, mitigation and incident resolution.
Pre-K Provider Management
In 2001 CORE ECS partnered with the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) to custom develop a comprehensive data monitoring system for their universal Pre-K program serving nearly 64,000 four-year olds (PANDA). With our help, DECAL took what was an inflexible and out of date system and completely streamlined it for processing hundreds of provider applications, making and tracking payments online, and validating program effectiveness from the field.
PANDA features:
Apply Online: No more endless paper shuffling. Potential Pre-K service providers can fill out applications online and receive award information and contracts through PANDA’s integrated e-mail.
Roster Submission: Providers can submit class roster information over a secure Internet connection so you can track exactly who is receiving service from which provider.
Instant Documents: PANDA integrates with Microsoft Word® so that state-level program staff can easily create forms and letters or edit contracts, using data directly from the system.
Track Every Single Student: PANDA uses our Unique ID Generator system to reduce duplication and increase the accuracy of rosters.
Online Payment: Accelerate monthly payments to providers with a fully functional and secure payments system that integrates with PeopleSoft.
Feedback from the Field: State consultants who perform audits and compliance monitoring can use our laptop software in remote areas, then upload it to the system when convenient.
K-12 Formative Assessment & Learning
CORE XLR8™ is a comprehensive K-12 formative assessment and learning management solution. Using a single platform, educators can create, manage, and share assessments, reports, and instructional resources throughout a school system. CORE XLR8 is highly scalable and intuitive, allowing educators to easily use assessments in the classroom, within a school, or across the district or region
CORE Vocational Training
Stepping into the world of productive employment, students’ approach often is too theoretical. While professionally qualified, they lack fundamental understanding that can make them readily employable. Also, fast developing countries are facing tremendous skill shortage. Despite having vast rural youth population, India itself today needs an additional 140 million skilled workers across industry segments.
In order to make students industry ready, educational institutes must use contemporary tools to bridge the gap. Core offers best-in-class, employability-linked vocational training in areas like Hospitality & Housekeeping, Spa Healthcare & Wellness, Data entry operations, IT & ITeS operations, Basic Accounting, and Construction. Core follows the Source, Train, Place model by working closely with industry and government organisations. It plans to expand its span by adding more sectors such as Automobile, retail, Travel and Tourism.
Core’s comprehensive employability education is created using principles of 4E i.e. engagement, education, employability, entrepreneurship and 4A i.e. Accessible, Affordable, Attractive and Applicable.
Core has partnered with The East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT), a US based institute recognized for excellence in career and technical education… for developing high quality Career and Technical education curriculum.
Psychometric Services
To support our assessment programs as well as deliver test items, test development, data analysis and outcome interpretation, CORE ECS provides a range of psychometric and assessment related functions including:
Item statistics and interpretations
IRT item parameter estimates and interpretations
Item and test form review of validity and reliability
Test construction and blueprints
Field testing
Equating, scaling, and linking studies
Growth scaling and reporting
Staff development on instructional impact of cognitive interpretations of measurement scores
All information gathered about students, including private personal data about students and their performances, will be gathered by the Gates Foundation funded InBloom, Inc. Mr. Gates paid inBloom 100 million dollars to collect and analyze schools’ data as part of a public-private collaborative that is building shared technology services.
The data mining software being used, beginning this year (2014), will be stored in a database designed by Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. The data will be collected by InBloom Inc., a non-profit like Wireless Generation, under the domain of one Bill Gates, who together with the Carnegie Foundation and other NGO’s set up the Wireless Generation through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Some 200,000 teachers in the U.S. are already using Wireless Generation data mining software.
Other partners with CORE Education & Technologies include the largest corporations in the world including Raytheon, one of the planets largest offense contractors and Cargill Foods, the largest hog processor in the United States.
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UNESCO’s “Education for All” Agenda
“In order to realize the world’s commitment to ensuring education for all by 2015, important innovations and reforms will be needed in the governance and financing of global education. In 2008, Presidential Candidate Barack Obama committed to making sure that every child has the chance to learn by creating a Global Fund for Education. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recently called for a new architecture of global cooperation… A new Global Fund for Education… must be capable of mobilizing the approximately $7 billion annually still needed to achieve education for all, while holding all stakeholders accountable for achieving results with these resources. None of these objectives will be achieved without a major rethinking of the global education architecture and an evolution of current mechanisms for financing education… Achieving these two Millennium Development Goals, and the broader Education for All Goals… will require more capable international institutions.”
Can you imagine a global education for all youth that teaches to a standardized testing system where all children’s futures will be tied to how well they perform (obey) through computerized education? Well that is the plans of the UNESCO and the global powers-that-be into a single-minded beehive.
UNESCO works in concert with the United Nations Agenda 21 (21st Century) plans to move many of the planets human inhabitants into cities and concentrated zones of control. UNESCO is also associated with the Trans Pacific Partnerships (TPP) agreements being secretly implemented as well as the global corporate structure being erected through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which seeks power of legal authority for corporations over nations and states in the court of law.
In April 2000 more than 1,100 participants from 164 countries gathered in Dakar, Senegal, for the World Education Forum. Participants, ranging from teachers to prime ministers, academics to policymakers, non-governmental bodies to the heads of major international organizations, adopted the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All.
Meeting Our Collective Commitments
“The participants agreed upon six wide-ranging education goals to be met by 2015. The Education for All Global Monitoring Report is the prime instrument to assess global progress towards achieving the six ‘Dakar’ EFA goals. It tracks progress, identifies effective policy reforms and best practice in all areas relating to EFA, draws attention to emerging challenges and seeks to promote international cooperation in favour of education.
The publication is targeted at decision-makers at the national and international level, and more broadly, at all those engaged in promoting the right to quality education – teachers, civil society groups, NGOs, researchers and the international community.”
From “Common Core Goes Global” in Crisis Magazine. 11.20.13:
“The collaboration of the Gates Foundation and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been well publicized. In addition, Gates, on behalf of his Microsoft Corporation, signed a 26-page Cooperation Agreement in 2004 between Microsoft and UNESCO to develop a “master curriculum” which included benchmarks and assessments. The agreement stipulates that “UNESCO will explore how to facilitate content development.
Some have decried Common Core as the nationalization of American education. Far more dangerous, however, is the globalism of Common Core that demotes American values, undermines American constitutional principles and detaches students from their families and faith. Common Core is simply the newest attempt in the decades-old battle (Outcome Based Education, Goals 2000) to impose a U.N. globalist worldview aimed at “peace,” sustainability and economic stability at the expense of freedom.”
UNESCO’s partnerships with Agenda 21 and the Common Core Standards Initiative is laid out in a 26 page cooperation agreement between UNESCO and Microsoft Corporation issued from UNESCO HQ in Paris on November 17, 2004. In this document it lays out the plans for a global education system. (Source)
“Prior to the reform of the global EFA coordination architecture in 2011-2012, the Education for All High-Level Group brought together high-level representatives from national governments, development agencies, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector. Its role was to generate political momentum and mobilize financial, technical and political support towards the achievement of the EFA goals and the education-related Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). From 2001-2011 the High-Level Group met annually.”
In the linked Education and Awareness page of that same U.N. website, we learn:
“Education, Public Awareness and Training is the focus of Chapter 36 of Agenda 21. This is a cross-sectoral theme both relevant to the implementation of the whole of Agenda 21 and indispensable for achieving sustainable development.” http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/susdevtopics/sdt_educawar.shtml
Did you get that? Education is indispensable for the U.N. to get its agenda pushed onto every citizen worldwide.
36.2 says they plan to “reorient” worldwide education toward sustainable development. (No discussion, no vote, no input needed on this reorientation plan, apparently.)
36.3 says:
“While basic education provides the underpinning for any environmental and development education, the latter needs to be incorporated as an essential part of learning. Both formal and non-formal education are indispensable to changing people’s attitudes so that they have the capacity to assess and address their sustainable development concerns. It is also critical for achieving environmental and ethical awareness, values and attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development and for effective public participation in decision-making. To be effective, environment and development education should deal with the dynamics of both the physical/biological and socio-economic environment and human (which may include spiritual) development, should be integrated in all disciplines, and should employ formal and non-formal methods.”
The take-away?
Environmental education will be incorporated in formal education globally.
Any value or attitude held by anyone globally that stands independent to that of the United Nations’ definition of “sustainable education” must change. Current attitudes are unacceptable.
Environmental education will be belief-and-spirituality based.
Environmental education will be integrated into all disciplines, not just science.
The stated objectives (36.4) include endorsing “Education for All,” achieving “environmental and development awareness in all sectors of society on a world-wide scale as soon as possible,” and to achieve the accessibility of environmental and developmental education, linked to social education, from primary school age through adulthood to all groups of people, and to promote integration of environment concepts, including demography, in all educational programmes, and “giving special emphasis to the further training of decision makers at all levels.”
But it gets worse.
Under “Activities,” we find:
“Governments should strive to update or prepare strategies aimed at integrating environment and development as a cross-cutting issue into education at all levels within the next three years. This should be done in cooperation with all sectors of society…. A thorough review of curricula should be undertaken to ensure a multidisciplinary approach, with environment and development issues and their socio-cultural and demographic aspects and linkages.”
So, it should be pretty clear that there is a huge re-education program happening to all countries, the aim of which is to change people’s attitudes toward believing in “sustainable development” and environmental education.
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC): Corporation’s legal arm for control of the public education system
Technically, ALEC is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It describes itself as a nonpartisan membership organization for those who share a common belief in “limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty.”
More than 2,000 state lawmakers pay ALEC $100 for a two-year membership. While listed as nonpartisan, ALEC’s members definitely skew to the conservative end of the political spectrum. For example, of the 114 listed members of the group’s Education Task Force, 108 are Republicans, and only six are Democrats.
Corporations, foundations, and “think tanks” can join ALEC, too. They pay up to $25,000 in yearly dues and can spend more to sponsor the council’s meetings. Corporate members can also donate to each state’s scholarship fund, which reimburses legislators who travel to meetings. The scholarships can exceed the amount of a legislator’s dues. Corporate members also can pay from $3,000 to $10,000 for a seat on a task force.
ALEC operates through nine task forces, each co-chaired by a corporate member and a legislative member. Task forces are divided by subject and bring together conservative policy makers with corporate leaders to develop model legislation. In order for a proposal to become model legislation, both the public and private sides of the committee must agree—granting considerable power to the corporate side. Elected officials then take the model bills back to their states to introduce them as their own. Only legislators who are members may access the model legislation. It is a very efficient mechanism for corporations to exercise political power—and they have.
One of its main goals is to place public education into private ownership and profits. So what we’re seeing in our schools now directly reflects ALEC’s model legislation, placing billions of dollars into the pockets of corporations as the expense of children’s education. The 2011 ALEC Annual Conference Substantive Agenda on Education shows their current interests:
“…the Task Force voted on several proposed bills and resolutions, with topics including: digital learning, the Common Core State Standards, charter schools, curriculum on free enterprise, taxpayers’ savings grants, amendments to the existing model legislation on higher education accountability, and a comprehensive bill that incorporates many components of the landmark school reforms Indiana passed this legislative session. Attendees will hear a presentation on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards’ initiative to grow great schools, as well as one on innovations in higher education.”
Don’t be fooled. Lately ALEC has been hemming and hawing about supporting the Common Core, but that is because of its ties between federal mandates pressed upon on state and local policies. It’s not Common Core they reject, just its delivery boy.
“The resolution was approved by the ALEC Education Task Force overwhelmingly last December, and ALEC has discussed it at three of its national meetings. The well-financed private entities and the federal government are moving forward with their implementation of the Common Core, and Americans have been cut out of the process.”
Case Example: ALEC in Tennessee
Recent legislation in Tennessee provides a vivid example. ALEC created and provided members its model Virtual Public Schools Act. Two large for-profit corporate providers of virtual education, Connections Academy and K-12 Inc., had heavy involvement with the model bill’s creation. Mickey Revenaugh, a lobbyist for Connections Academy, was the corporate chair of ALEC’s Education Task Force and Lisa Gillis, with K-12 Inc., chaired its special needs education subcommittee that created the bill. Tennessee’s State Rep. Harry Brooks and State Sen. Dolores Gresham, both ALEC Education Task Force members, introduced the bill to their respective houses nearly verbatim, even using the same title. For example, the following passage forms the preamble of the adopted statute. Underlined portions were taken directly from ALEC’s model.
• WHEREAS, meeting the educational needs of children in our state’s schools is of the greatest importance to the future welfare of Tennessee; and
• WHEREAS, closing the achievement gap between high-performing students, including the gap between minority and non-minority students and between economically disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers, is a significant and present challenge; and
• WHEREAS, providing a broader range of educational options to parents and utilizing existing resources, along with technology, may help students in our state improve their academic achievement; and
• WHEREAS, many of our school districts currently lack the capacity to provide other public school choices for students whose schools are low performing; now, therefore
• The purpose of this part is to provide an LEA with an alternative choice to offer additional educational resources in an effort to improve academic achievement. (Virtual Public Schools Act, 2011).
The bill passed both houses on a party-line vote on June 16, 2011. Shortly thereafter, K-12 Inc.—one of the creators of the model legislation—won a no-bid contract from Union County School District to create the Tennessee Virtual Academy and will receive about $5,300 per student from the state for the 2011-12 school year (Humphrey, 2011). Connections Academy does not yet offer a virtual school in Tennessee, but its web site reports that it “is actively working with parent groups, education officials, and others to launch a school in this state.”
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that about 2,000 students applied for enrollment in the Tennessee Virtual Academy for fall 2011. Recent reports raise concerns that the program’s popularity with home schoolers may “drain taxpayer funds” while enriching the corporation actively and aggressively recruiting students to enroll (Locker, 2011). Locker also reports that “K-12 Inc. compensated its CEO more than $2.6 million last year, its chief financial officer more than $1.7 million, and other top executives several hundred thousand dollars each, according to its latest annual report to shareholders.”
ALEC’s success in Tennessee is by no means its only incursion into state education policy. ALEC’s interest in education is ambitious and multifaceted, and includes promoting dozens of model acts to its legislative members (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010). Proposed bills seek to influence teacher certification, teacher evaluation, collective bargaining, curriculum, funding, special education, student assessment, and numerous other education and education-related issues. Common throughout the bills are proposals to decrease local control of schools by democratically elected school boards while increasing access to all facets of education by private entities and corporations. ALEC’s outlined agenda is to:
• Introduce market factors into schools, particularly the teaching profession (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 82) to be carried out through model legislation such as Alternative Certification Act, Great Teachers and Leaders Act, National Teacher Certification Fairness Act, Public School Union Release Time Act, School Collective Bargaining Agreement Sunshine Act, and Teacher Choice Compensation Act. There’s also a set of proposals (Public School Financial Transparency Act; School Board Freedom to Contract Act) that encourage school districts to outsource their auxiliary services.
• Privatize education through vouchers, charters, and tax incentives (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 87) to be carried out through model legislation such as Foster Child Scholarship Program Act, Great Schools Tax Credit, Military Family Scholarship Program Act, Parental Choice Scholarship Accountability Act, Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (means-tested eligibility), Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (universal eligibility), Parental Choice Scholarship Program Act (universal eligibility, means-tested scholarship amount), Parental Choice Scholarship Tax Credit Accountability Act, Education Enterprise Zone Act, Smart Start Scholarship Program, Special Needs Scholarship Program Act, Family Education Savings Account Act, Parental Rights Act, Resolution Supporting Private Scholarship Tax Credits, Autism Scholarship Program Act, and Family Education Tax Credit Program Act.
• Increase student testing and reporting (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 93) to be carried out through model legislation such as Resolution Supporting the Principles of No Child Left Behind Act, Student Right to Learn Act, Education Accountability Act, Longitudinal Student Growth Act, One to One Reading Improvement Act, and Resolution on Nonverified Science Curriculum Funding.
• Reduce the influence of or eliminate local school districts and school boards (Ladner, LeFevre, & Lips, 2010, p. 96) to be carried out through model legislation such as Charter Schools Act, Innovation Schools and School Districts Act, Open Enrollment Act, Virtual Public Schools Act, and Next Generation Charter Schools Act.
While ALEC’s forays into education policy are broad, privatization of public education has been a long-standing ALEC objective. As early as 1985, ALEC’s motivation for privatization was made clear (Barrett, 1985).
In response, ALEC offered model legislation to “foster educational freedom and quality” through privatization (Barrett, 1985, p. 8). Privatization takes multiple forms: vouchers, tax incentives for sending children to private schools, and charter schools operated by for-profit entities.
Today, ALEC calls this approach “choice” and renames vouchers “scholarships,” but its aim is clear: Defund and dismantle public schools. While many other right-wing organizations support this agenda, ALEC is the mechanism for implementing it through its many pieces of model legislation that propose legislative methods for defunding public schools, particularly low-income, urban schools.
The motivation for dismantling the public education system—creating a system where schools do not provide for everyone—is ideological, and it is motivated by profit.
United States of ALEC by Bill Moyers
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“Individualized education comes from a teacher identifying a child’s strengths and weaknesses and helping him learn in light of these. It does not come from computers that are programmed to change questions based on certain inputs, because the computer will never know that a child may have decided to simply click “C” no matter how many ways the test question is asked. Individualized education is not fostered when a teacher receives a dismal report about her students’ progress, but she is given no time to help struggling students. Instead, she must rush to the next concept in order to cover this year’s prescribed standards.
The rigid, dehumanized method necessitated by the Common Core’s requirements also threatens quality of education. Whether incidentally or by design, the Common Core endangers the idea of a liberal education and jeopardizes the goal of preparing children to be good citizens by sacrificing the pursuits of literacy, future curiosity, and loving what is objectively true on the altar of “college- and career-readiness.” Aiming to teach “what students need to know and be able to do to be successful in college and careers” mass-produces humans who will obediently serve in the workforce.
The beauty of a decentralized approach to education is that if teachers have to opportunity to teach small-enough classes, they are able to know when they should introduce particular concepts and where they should focus based on the interests of their students. Then students can be taught as individual human beings—not machines that can be analyzed and responded to by a computer program. But tragically, there is no room for this kind individualized education in the unbending, computerized Common Core.” -Home Schooling Legal Defense Association
The good news is that New York has joined 5 other states in uniting to either postpone or reject Common Core education curriculum’s.
For a century or more the wealth elite in power have designed an education system that is working exactly how they designed it. They have not desired smart, intelligent, students that someday may become able to unseat their long established power base. Anything but that.
The global plans are now to have a standardized global education system tied to computer learning with an outcome based education system based on high stakes testing.
High stakes testing continual testing is being implemented through to 1st grade levels.
The results of the study, titled “A Systematic Review of the Impact of Summative Assessment and Tests on Students’ Motivation for Learning,” rebut the claim that standardized testing motivates low achievers to reap the reward of high scores and avoid the punishment of failure. In fact, researchers Wynne Harlen and Dr. Ruth Deakin-Crick of Bristol University found that the two categories of students particularly discouraged by constant testing are girls and low achievers.
These findings call into question the claims of U.S. high-stakes testing proponents that they have found the key to closing the race-based achievement gap, since the study results suggest that groups such as low-income and many minority students, who traditionally score low on standardized tests, are likely to be among those who are demotivated by consistently poor test results.
The study also found that constant testing encourages even successful students to see the goals of education in terms of passing tests rather than developing an understanding of what they are learning, supporting previous research done in the United States (see Examiner, Winter 1997).
The researchers found firm evidence that achievement of literacy is linked to students’ interest in learning, the degree to which their learning strategies link to existing knowledge rather than just memorizing, and the degree to which they feel in control of their learning. The authors concluded that policymakers must recognize that high-stakes testing is providing information about students’ attainment while reducing their motivation to learn. (Source)
The controversial Early Years Foundation Stage, which sets dozens of learning goals for children from their first year to the age of five, says that computers should be introduced from 22 months on.
Within the next 2 years the Education for All agenda desires to have all public schools children fully linked to computer learning and assessment criteria. Additionally, phone taxes will be levied to homes and cell phones to bring internet education to all.
Schools throughout the country are unwittingly signing over their power to the global electronic education system while Arnie Duncan, the head of the United States Department of Education wants schools to be the central hub of community and to manage and control of our youth 24/7/365.
“Schools should open 7 days a week, 12-13 hours a day, 12 months a year. Pot luck dinners, health care clinics…schools become center of community life… school becomes hub of community… Create 21st century for care for children while parents will have to work 2-3 jobs… Children need to be cared for by the State… Non-Government Organizations can operate the schools from 3 pm to 9 pm and on weekends.“
“You’re spending less money getting better outcomes and people around the country are starting to take notes. I don’t want this success to be restricted to one school or one school district. There’s no reason we can’t replicate the success you’ve had here. I want to see a tablet that’s the same price as a textbook. I want to see more apps that can be instantly updated with academic content the days it’s available so you don’t have textbooks with students’ names from years ago.” -President Obama
Conclusion
In Part IV we will explore the rapidly changing paradigm of higher level education and the three-tier caste Prussian system being implemented as described in Part I which seeks to design into society a class system consisting of the few aristocrats, the supporters to the aristocrats (i.e. doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.) and then the common working classes. (Source)
As colleges cater more and more to overseas “clients” to keep their brick and mortar business of higher education operating, Big Business has other plans for the future of student education. Online education. Famously, in the Fall of 2013, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google declared that “Universities are going the way of the Dinosaur”, as he stood on the steps of Princeton University.
From Bloomberg News Services:
“Schmidt was more positive about the un-Princeton-like Khan Academy, on whose board he serves. He said the academy, which offers free online video tutorials on dozens of topics, has begun to analyze students’ answers to figure out which questions do the best job of assessing mastery of a topic.”
The Google boss also had kind words for EdX, a nonprofit created by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that lets students take “interesting, fun, and rigorous courses” for free. Google and EdX announced this week that the tech giant will host a platform called Open EdX in a bid to make it easier for anyone to create online courses. “The fun will start,” Schmidt said, as new ventures smash up against incumbents that resist change.
Slaughter agreed that traditional colleges and universities, with their high fixed costs, are at risk. ‘They’re going to lose their top talent,” she said. “We can become global teachers. The best people can become free agents.’” (Source)
During the 2013–14 school year, colleges and universities are expected to award 943,000 associate’s degrees; 1.8 million bachelor’s degrees; 778,000 master’s degrees; and 177,000 doctor’s degrees (source, source, source, and source).
Schmidt, Big Tech and the global power base want control of the up and coming minds, bodies and spirits from cradle to grave and they have well laid out, well planned goals to execute their stated desires.
Only through a deeper understanding of their goals and plans can we devise our own strategies to consciously change, destroy and/or opt out of global corporate control of our newest and youngest generations.
Like the proverbial saying goes, “If we don’t change direction, we will wind up where we are heading.”
Unplugging your children from the wall, reconnecting with your children by reading to and with them, and bringing this type of alternative education information to your local school districts about the elite agenda can all serve to change a system that wants to own everything, especially today’s youth.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
About the Author
Jamie Lee is the author of Tabu Blog, and a strong advocate of personal liberty and freedom from overbearing government.
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
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