Futile accountability systems should be abandoned

"Test-based accountability is essentially a central-planning exercise similar to that used by officials in the Soviet Union in attempting to manage the country’s economy," Jay P. Greene writes in the Summer 2017 issue of EducationNext. "In both cases, a distant official selected a particular goal for production, focused on a limited set of metrics to assess whether goals were met, and then threatened to impose rewards or sanctions based on whether those metrics showed desired results. Central planning failed in the Soviet Union, and it is failing here in public education—and for similar reasons."

I encourage you to read the entire article here.

Fed Ed failure

Federal involvement in education has been a multi-faceted failure. It’s time to devolve power to state and local governments and, better still, to take “local control” all the way to the kitchen table by giving more choices to parents. Dr. Vicki Alger, author of the new book Failure: The Federal Miseducation of America's Children, discussed the matter this morning on The Trent England Show.

Common Core, LGBTQ agenda spur homeschooling surge

"Local newspapers and homeschool leaders from West Virginia to Alabama and North Carolina to Texas report a surge in homeschooling interest and enrollment," Nicole Russell writes.

Islam is creeping into public school classrooms

Public schools across the nation are forcing Islamic indoctrination, Investor's Business Daily recently editorialized.

Parents should know that this unconstitutional promotion of Islam—along with the marginalization, even denigration, of Christianity—is happening in public schools across the country as part of President Obama’s Common Core curriculum. ... 

Project Veritas recently caught on camera a former marketing executive for textbook publishing giant Pearson Education revealing the anti-Christian, pro-Islamic agenda of Common Core. 

Veritas: Christianity is totally out of Common Core? 

Ex-Pearson official Kim Koerber: Yes, it is. Totally. It’s not a core concept at all . . . They said you have to talk about Islam. 

“Parents must be ever vigilant to the Islamic indoctrination of their children under the guise of teaching history and multiculturalism. This is happening in public schools across the country. And they must take action to stop it,” warned Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the [John K.] Wood family. 

If more parents fail to fight back like the courageous Wood, they risk their children not just being indoctrinated, but possibly even being converted to Islam in our otherwise secular public schools.

Parents should be able to opt out

"The state teachers union may wind up regretting coming out big for parental choice in the recent 'opt-out' wars," Jason Bedrick writes in the New York Post, because the same principle dictates support for school choice.

This year, more than 200,000 Empire State students refused to take the state’s Common Core assessment exam, up from about 60,000 last year. In several districts, more than half the students opted out. 

Perhaps the loudest voice pushing the “opt-out” message has been New York’s largest teachers union. Declaring its support for “a parent’s right to choose,” the New York State United Teachers have actively encouraged parents to opt their children out of the state tests. 

NYSUT’s Web site even includes links to resources to help parents opt out if they “decide it is not in their children’s best interests.” ... 

Parents, too, have legitimate concerns—about over-testing, a narrowing curriculum, and the loss of local control over their children’s education. Frustrated at their diminished influence in the era of Common Core, parents are exercising one of the few tools they have left. 

Of course, if the union really believed its own opt-out rhetoric, they’d realize that parents should be able to opt out of their assigned district schools as well. 

Opt-out movement can 'loosen the state's grip on the children'

"To a large extent, the opt-out conflict is no different than the seemingly endless battles over countless matters into which public schooling forces Americans," Neal McCluskey writes today.

[A]ll children, families, and communities are different. They have different needs, desires, abilities, values, educational philosophies, and on and on, and no single system can possibly treat them all equally. That is why educational freedom—connecting educational funding and decisions to individual children—is the essential reform. That said, if parents are allowed to opt their children out of government-dictated tests it would be a welcome move in the right direction. It would loosen the state's grip on the children, at least a little bit.

Common Core, bullying spur homeschool growth in Tahlequah

Homeschooling is growing in the Tahlequah area, Cathy Spaulding reports in the Muskogee Phoenix. She quotes Tavia Fuller Armstrong of the Tahlequah homeschool group as saying her organization's membership has tripled in the last six months.

“A lot has to do with the Common Core,” Armstrong said, referring to a controversial curriculum that supporters say promotes rigor and higher-level thinking skills. Critics, however, have said Common Core Curriculum encourages cross-cultural relativism and sloppy conceptual thinking.

The Oklahoma Legislature repealed the state’s Common Core math and English curricula in 2014, mandating that new standards be prepared. 

Armstrong said people continue to be concerned about Common Core influence, even with its repeal. “The textbooks have already changed,” Armstrong said. 

Parents also are concerned about bullying in schools, she said.

Armstrong said School Choice Week is not about opposing public education. “We encourage parents to have the best options to pick for their children — public school, virtual school, private school, or home school,” she said.

Opposition to Common Core spurs jump in homeschooling

Perry Chiaramonte has the story.

Common Core combatants find common ground: parental choice

In a November 11 debate at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Michael Petrilli and Jenni White disagreed strongly on the wisdom of adopting Common Core State Standards. They did, however, find one area of agreement: the need for parental choice in education.

"We both agree that parental choice is hugely important, that it’s a fundamental right, and that it’s also a fundamental way to improve our public education system, that empowering parents is something that we absolutely have to do," said Mr. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. "As parents, we definitely want to have that sense that we are in control of our own kids’ education."

Mrs. White, who serves on the board of Restore Oklahoma Public Education, agreed. “The only way to solve the majority of these issues is educational freedom. Freedom that allows parents to choose the school with the curricula and set of standards best in line with their children’s unique and individual needs. Instead of funding flowing to the school, funds should flow from the parents to the school in the ultimate act of educational accountability.”

Here’s a brief video clip with some more of their comments:



[Cross-posted at OCPA]

Stand for grown-ups: Group hires anti-choice crusader

"An education advocacy group has agreed to pay a $10,000 penalty for failing to file reports with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission," the Tulsa World reports ("Stand for Children to pay $10,000 fine for ethics violation").

The group provided funds to support Melissa Abdo of Tulsa in her failed attempt to be elected to the Legislature. Abdo works for Stand for Children Oklahoma as its Tulsa city director. She was hired after her race, [executive director Amber] England said. The group also provided funds to oppose Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, and Sen. Ralph Shortey, R-Oklahoma City. Both were re-elected. Brecheen was the Senate author of legislation that repealed Common Core standards. Stand for Children Oklahoma opposed that legislation.

Stand for Children Oklahoma, which is run by a former Democrat operative, favors more government spending on the failed monopoly school system. This should come as no surprise. As I pointed out last year when national activist Jonah Edelman, founder and chief executive officer of Stand for Children, was in Tulsa to announce the launch of Stand for Children Oklahoma:

Unfortunately, liberals have a long history of spending money — "for the children," of course — on ineffective government programs.

According to the Tulsa World, Mr. Edelman "said he founded Stand for Children as a way to carry on his parents' legacy of service." His mother, Marian Wright Edelman, is president of the Children's Defense Fund. She is a former trustee of the Industrial Areas Foundation, which was established by community organizer Saul Alinsky to train people in the tactics of revolutionary social change. She considered Alinsky "brilliant" and delivered a eulogy at his funeral. As Kay S. Hymowitz writes:

"When the country debated welfare reform, [Mrs. Edelman] vigorously resisted work requirements — though she had seen with her own eyes that even the most destitute gain self-respect from hard work and orderly lives. Edelman was in high dudgeon when President Clinton, her former friend and ally, was on the verge of signing a welfare-reform bill: she called it 'national child abandonment' and 'a defining moral litmus test for your presidency' in an open letter published in the Washington Post. She organized the 'Stand for Children' march on Washington. And when the president signed the bill and her husband [civil-rights attorney Peter Edelman, who had been the issues director for Ted Kennedy's presidential campaign] resigned from his post as assistant secretary of HHS, she called it a 'moment of shame,' comparable to the worst human evils: 'Never let us confuse what is legal with what is right,' she reproached. 'Everything Hitler did in Nazi Germany was legal, but it was not right.'"

Indeed, that 300,000-person-strong march on Washington — which Jonah Edelman helped organize — was Stand for Children's founding rally. So I suppose it’s not surprising that the organization would continue to push for more government spending on ineffective government programs while continuing to resist reforms that are proven to work.

Reforms like parental choice, for example. During his visit to Tulsa Mr. Edelman was quoted as saying, "If you look at the research on vouchers, there is no indication of student achievement progress." (One can only hope Mr. Edelman was simply misinformed rather than lying.)

I can't say I'm surprised that Stand for Children Oklahoma hired Melissa Abdo, who opposes private-school choice with a vengeance. As the heroic American Federation for Children Action Fund, an influential First Amendment money organization, correctly noted during Mrs. Abdo's campaign, she is guilty of "surrounding herself with liberal lobbyists and special interests" and "supporting higher taxes and more government spending." One notable example: Mrs. Abdo — who wants us to "save the environment" by "going green!" — encouraged people to attend a teacher union rally in March calling for a 600 percent tax increase on Oklahoma oil and natural gas drilling.

I confess to having no idea what exactly Stand for Children is trying to accomplish. I thought it was odd and pointless and unwise to try to take out Brecheen. It's as if they didn't realize the anti-Common-Core freight train had left the station and was now unstoppable. What did they think toppling Brecheen would accomplish? As it turned out, they couldn't elect a Democrat even in that Senate district (of all places), just as they couldn't elect a parental-choice foe in Jenks, the very belly of the anti-parental-choice beast. They don't seem to realize that Oklahomans — and especially Oklahoma Republicans — favor parental choice.

The whole thing reminds one of Mr. Obama after his latest shellacking. He doesn't recognize that his circumstances have changed; he just keeps doing what he's always done.

UPDATE: The state's largest newspaper weighs in, saying "Stand for Children should take care lest its campaign tactics lead people to conclude that its Oklahoma agenda is more anti-Republican than pro-education."

Oddly, during his visit to Tulsa Mr. Edelman was quoted as saying, “If you look at the research on vouchers, there is no indication of student achievement progress.” - See more at: http://www.ocpathink.org/articles/2426#sthash.6aLwN38o.dpuf

We need competition, not Common Core

"Ultimately, Common Core rests on the faulty premise that a single, centralized entity knows what's best for all 55 million students nationwide," Vicki Alger writes. "Raising the education bar starts with putting the real experts in charge: students' parents."

School board tells homeschool family their curriculum must be 'guided' by Common Core Standards

The Daily Signal has the story.

'Private schools avoiding Common Core debates'

FOX 23 in Tulsa has the story.

Americans support educational choice

... "but are skeptical of Common Core and test-based accountability," Jason Bedrick writes. 

Duncan Public Schools will continue to use Common Core methods

KSWO has the story.

Look for a possible spike in homeschooling in Duncan.

Homeschoolers need not apply

Will this be the face of Common Core?

'More parents choose homeschooling due to Common Core'

Breitbart has the story.

Common Core film is excellent

I saw it today and I highly recommend it. It premieres March 31 on YouTube.

Labor commissioner says Common Core hostile to parental choice

"Parental choice is eliminated as schools are pushed to have the same curriculum and textbooks," Oklahoma labor commissioner Mark Costello says.

Other than that ...

"Common Core supporters know many voters and politicians dislike federal meddling with education," Joy Pullmann writes, "because it is not authorized by the Constitution, is utterly ineffective, and destroys the right of parents to bring up their children as they see fit."