Elois Zeanah Respond to Tommy Bice About Common Core--Stubborn Facts

February 22, 2014
COMMENTARY:  Response to “The Stubborn facts regarding Common Core” by Alabama Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice 

“Yes, Dr. Bice, If you like your doctor and your health insurance, you can keep them.”  Your promise that Alabama can  maintain full “state control of our public education system” is right up there with this promise.  Alabama has signed agreements with the federal government to implement Common Core K-12 education standards one hundred percent as written.  Common Core is a one-size-fits-all national standards for K-12 that will be compulsory and will replace existing state standards for curricula, textbooks, testing, teacher instruction, teacher evaluation, and assessments.  Despite your careful parsing and clever spins, these are “stubborn facts.”  But facts didn’t matter from the beginning when the state board of education agreed to adopt Common Core to replace Alabama’s tradition educational standards without public debate.   

Like ObamaCare, neither you nor the state board of education knew what would be in the Common Core curriculum when you rushed to sign up when the federal government dangled billions of dollars to states who would sign on to Race to the Top to usher in revolutionary education reform, which was not written, untested and unresearched, and would be used by the Obama Administration as official education policy.  You obligated parents, teachers, and legislators (who have final authority over public education) without their approval and took away parental and states rights.  Neither you nor the state board of education had that constitutional right.  This is a “stubborn fact” that you ignore. 

 The Application of Race to the Top and Waivers to No Child Left Behind Mandated the Implementation of Common Core

While it’s a “fact” that Alabama was not awarded Race to the Top grants, Alabama applied and was refused twice but nevertheless Alabama had to agree to adopt and implement one hundred percent the Common Core Standards, not yet written, whether or not Alabama received the federal bait.  The same was true to get the Obama Administration to grant Alabama a waiver to No Child Left Behind.  Yet you continually omit these “stubborn facts.”

 Common Core is Copyright and Cannot be Changed by States

You also never mention who owns the copyright to the Common Core Standards.  You should since you are a member of one of those two private organizations, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), which has partnered with the National Governors Association (NGA).  The writing and marketing of the Common Core standards, written without transparency and without legislative authority, were written under the auspices of these two lobbying organizations.  Both organizations have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government and Gates Corporation to convince states to approve national, one-size-fits-all K-12 education standards.  Changes to Common Core can only be made by the copyright holders.  Importantly, the copyright that your organization  holds includes a disclaimer that the organization cannot be held liable or accountable for any harm that might come to our students from the implementation of the standards.

Children’s Privacy is Breached

 Parents are spooked that changes have been made to the FERPA law that allows the collection of confidential student data and its storage in a giant database online, which will be shared by federal agencies and private parties.  Such sharing  (illegal until the Obama Administration changed the FERPA law, again bypassing Congress and without a whisper of alarm from Dr. Bice about this presidential abuse of power and how it would remove protection from our students.)  As exposed by crack investigative journalist Stephanie Simon and stated by Diane Ravitch, a former Reagan education cabinet member, now, our children’s and grandchildren’s “personal and confidential data will be sold or given to entrepreneurs for marketing purposes” such as to the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, CompassLearning, Pearson, and others.  Instead of blindly and silently giving into the lawlessness of the Obama Administration, and working with big business to boost their profits at the expense of our children’s privacy and safety, the Alabama state board of education should be shouting from the rooftops about how FERPA endangers our children.

Dr. Bice also ignores the fact that Common Core textbooks and suggested reading materials that teach that: (1) “Government is like a nation’s family because it sets rules and takes care of needs such as health care and education.  So says a worksheet for social studies homework … complete with a drawing of Uncle Sam cradling a baby that represents the citizens.” (2) Some textbooks and related materials include porn, incest, profanity, promiscuity and encourage having children out of wedlock, writings that condemn Christianity, capitalism, and praise Castro and communism.

 Does Alabama Want to Help President Obama use Education to Fulfill his “Battle for Social Justice?”

President Obama’s Secretary of Education has characterized Common Core as a “revolution” to help in the “battle for social justice”.  Why should Dr. Bice, the state board of education, and the Alabama legislature play any part in embracing Common Core and be used to fulfill a socialist fantasy so against Alabama values and in violation of the Tenth Amendment?

 The only way to stop this travesty, and to restore parental and states’ rights over local education is to replace incumbents who support Common Core and convince Alabama legislators to repeal Common Core before it, like ObamaCare, is embedded.

 Elois Zeanah
Immediate Past President, Alabama Federation of Republican Women, 2010-2014

(Note of thank to Elois Zeanah--we can never give words to how grateful we are for her stand in defending America's children.  May the LORD shine his face upon you, Mrs. Elois!)

Bill To Repeal Common Core Introduced by Scott Beason--SB403 or SB404--Read Letter By Elois Zeanah to Legislators

PLEASE DON’T FORSAKE OUR CHILDREN:
A Frank Discussion And Challenge to Alabama Republican Legislators

Dear Republican Legislators:

May I speak frankly?   Your Republican constituency is asking why conservative legislators are not shouting from their soap boxes to repeal Common Core – just as actor Matt Damon’s mother, an early childhood education expert, is asking, “Why isn’t everyone marching in the streets protesting this?”  No issue is more important for our families and our state than protecting our children from indoctrination and propaganda, loosening of moral values, an invasion of their privacy, dumbed-down curricula, and the loss of parental control over education.  We know Republican Legislators care about our children’s education and wouldn’t knowingly give away parental control and state sovereignty over the values our children learn in school.  But that’s what Common Core does. 

Alabama activists can answer the question posed by Matt Damon’s mother:  Common Core was written in secret and parents were kept in the dark about Common Core until it was implemented; parents remain unaware until their children start having problems in school, and then they get angry.  We cannot, however, answer the first question.  It appears that some legislators want to dodge the issue by hiding behind the state superintendent and two school board members.  That’s not an option any longer, however.  Legislators who choose to kill the bills or let time expire as an excuse to not act, are actually making a choice to voluntarily offer up our children to federal bureaucrats and private interests and cede parental and state control over education policy in Alabama.

"The Alabama Constitution vests the duty to provide for public education 'squarely upon the shoulders of the Legislature' as the Supreme Court of Alabama observed. (Ex-parte James, 836 So. 3d. 813 at 85 (Ala. 2002). 

We understand the desire to trust those in education positions, but we also believe in President Ronald Reagan’s caution to “trust but verify”.   In this case, the state superintendent and two board members are misleading you when they say the adoption of Common Core does not cede control over education.  We have given you irrefutable proof, including documents from their own Alabama Department of Education, that their claims are false; but apparently you’re not reading them or you want to remain in denial.  Ask yourself this simple question:

How can Alabama retain full control over education decisions when the Department of Education had to change Alabama standards, curriculum, assessment, testing, etc. to comply 100% with Common Core dictates – and Alabama cannot change or delete anything but must implement every word of Common Core exactly as written?  Achieve, Inc., the writers of Common Core, even provided a measuring “tool” to Alabama to compare its standards to Common Core with the mandate to change anything that did not measure up precisely.  This is retaining control?

I was troubled yesterday to hear that an Education Policy committee member sent a candid message to advocates for children who support repeal that he trusted Dr. Bice and would vote accordingly, regardless of what evidence we presented or even if it meant his defeat next year.  This statement was made despite the facts that Dr. Bice supported the board’s adoption of Common Core without alerting the Legislature that it would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, which legislators must provide, at a time when the state is broke, and that Dr. Bice has misappropriated $50 million of ARI and AMSTI funds without the knowledge or approval of the Legislature.  As a lay person, this strikes me as an abdication of responsibility and a willingness to let the state superintendent and board run roughshod over the Legislature.  If one legislator feels this way, how many others feel similarly?  It was this candid admission that prodded me to write this frank letter.

The State Superintendent, by the way, is not a neutral party.  Legislators need to understand that Dr. Bice is, in essence, a LOBBYIST for CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers), a trade association.  He is a member of the Washington-based CCSSO, which received millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation to write/promote Common Core, and which with NGA has copyrighted Common Core.  Fordham Institute President Chester Finn described CCSSO as a major and long-term member of the liberal movement on federal education policy which has an “ancient and cozy relationship with the U.S. Education Department and can be counted on to do its bidding.”  (Chester Finn, This Isn’t Only a Test, supra note 296) 

We urge our Legislators to be independent thinkers and to do their oversight duty under the Alabama Constitution.  Frankly, I and others don't understand why a supermajority Republican legislature would want to duck this issue.  It's an opportunity to stand up for what Republicans believe!

Republicans say they seek to decentralize power as much as possible.  Common Core is more central planning and attacks federalism.  It moves education away from the founding principle that parents and states, not federal government, should control local education.

Republicans say they are the law-and-order party.  The refusal to repeal Common Core sanctions President Obama’s end-run around our constitutional system and his violation of federal laws, which forbid federal control of what children learn in school, and usurps state education sovereignty. 

Republicans say they want a quality curriculum.  Education experts and conservative think-tanks are concerned that Common Core dumbs down curriculum; that the definition of “college ready” means preparing students for two, not four year, colleges; and that the one-size-fits-all program harms individuality and innovation, and produces robotic behavior.  As one of the creators of Common Core admitted, Common Core treats children like machines in a factory to be programmed.

Republicans say the best way to improve education is through choice/competition and innovation.  Common Core annihilates choice and competition and permits little innovation.  The much-touted AAA passed recently by the Legislature sounds good but it cannot be implemented unless Common Core is repealed.  Tax credits will make no difference in the quality of education, since Common Core is a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all education reform, and states which adopt Common Core have no choice but to implement 100% of Common Core exactly as it is written.  This will impact all schools and reduce the academic quality of education in the best of schools.

Republicans say K-12 education should be free of indoctrination and propaganda.  Common Core converts Alabama’s traditional education system to a new politicized system based on liberal/progressives’ ideology.  Many education experts have spoken to this fact and it has been proven by examples of textbook and classroom assignments.  As Charles Krauthammer wrote in his November 6, 2012 article, Election could change history’s trajectory:   “Obama’s intention has always been to …. transform America.  He would do it in three areas:  health care, education, and energy.”  Common Core is the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s education reform.  If there were any doubt as to Obama’s goal for Common Core, his U.S. Department of Education Secretary made it clear in his statement that Common Core is a “revolution” and the purpose of Obama’s education reform is to help in the “battle for social justice”.

Republicans say they are against redistribution of wealth.  Obama’s ultimate goal is a massive redistribution of tax resources by taking money from better-off suburban schools and giving it to less-well-off urban schools.  “President Obama’s Department of Education has established an Equity and Excellence Commission, charged with finding ‘ways to restructure school finance systems to achieve equity in the distribution of educational resources and further student achievement and attainment.”  (Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of “Spreading the Wealth:  How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities.”)

The Alabama Legislature is citizens’ last chance to defend Alabama values and our education rights under the Tenth Amendment.  If the Legislature fails to repeal Common Core, it condones the action by the majority state board of education (Gov. Bentley, Stephanie Bell and Betty Peters being the holdouts for local control and parental rights) to cede control of Alabama’s education policy to bureaucrats and special interests outside of Alabama.

Please don’t abdicate your responsibility to the state superintendent and board of education and cede control over education to the federal government and private interests outside Alabama.  Alabama’s children need your intervention and protection.  Don’t offer them up to the federal government and private interests who call our children “human capital”!

We beseech you to follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, who refused to further expand government control over its citizens.

Next week opens a new chapter.  New bills have been introduced in both the Senate and House.  Time remaining in this legislative session is short, however.  There’s still time to put our children first and repeal Common Core if there’s a commitment to protect our children and parental control over education.  If the will is absent and you let time expire, your non-action is a decision to VOLUNTARILY GIVE UP OUR EDUCATION RIGHTS and cede control over our children’s education to entities outside Alabama.  We know you don’t intend to do that.  But just as ignorance of the law is no excuse, the failure to understand the consequences of your actions is no excuse to forsake our children.  We know you’re busy and have a lot of pressure on you, but we can get you within minutes any information/documentation you want to prove that Common Core DOES CEDE CONTROL of education rights for Alabama parents and the state legislature.  The past few weeks have given you time to question claims made by the state superintendent and two board members, and we feel confident that upon examination of the facts, you will do what’s right by our children and our state.

Please don’t forsake our children but do your duty to protect them by voting to rescind and defund CCSSI!

Respectfully,
Elois Zeanah

Why Vote NO on September 18th Vote On ALabama Trust Fund--Because The Truth Is Out!

Here is a link from Alabama Forestry Commission that sums it up rather well. 

http://www.forestryed.com/ftp/AFA--political4Newsroom.pdf

Also ask yourself if this was such a gut wrenching --end of the road decision then why was it placed at the start of the legislative session on February 7th?

Also ask yourself if this was to save this year--why are they raiding the Alabama Trust Fund for 3 years?

We have this "sky is falling" tactic as before with Amendment 1--let's not let them get away with it as the next time it will be your pocketbook as the Alabama Trust Fund will be emptied!!!

-------

The Answers To Why--please note CA stands for Constitutional Amendment and ATF is Alabama Trust Fund:

SYNOPSIS: The State General Fund (GF) budget for FY 2012‐2013 of $1.67 billion is short $145.8 million. The State must either cut more spending or find funds to cover this deficiency.
The Legislature voted to balance the 2013 GF by taking money from the Alabama Trust Fund (ATF), CONTINGENT on voters passing a Constitutional Amendment (CA) on Sept. 18.
The CA has become controversial for several reasons:

(1) It takes money from the principal but there is no legal obligation to repay it.

(2) It asks voters to approve using ATF funds to balance the GF budget for the next three years, not just for 2013 – by $145.8 million each year.

(3) The $437.4 million effectively redirects the repayment of $437.4 million owed by the Education Trust Fund to the ETF Rainy Day fund within the ATF. This ETF debt must be repaid over the next three years.

ANALYSIS: SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 SPECIAL ELECTION to Amend the Alabama Constitution
SHOULD THE STATE USE THE ALABAMA TRUST FUND TO BALANCE THE GENERAL FUND BUDGET FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS? The proposed Constitutional Amendment would take $437 Million from the Alabama Trust Fund
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Q & A:

Why does the State want to raid the principal of the ATF since the ATF has a General Fund Rainy Day Account? This account is depleted due to borrowing to bail out General Fund budgets in past years, and these funds have not been repaid.

Why is a Constitutional Amendment necessary? To change the formula for distributing ATF funds and to amend the Constitution which currently requires repayment when Rainy Day Funds are transferred to the GF.  This Constitutional Amendment allows the State to transfer $437.4 million without repaying the money.

Read complete analysis from Elois Zeanah (Pres of AFRW) here.

Here's a short video to share from SGP:

 And another from nationally acclaimed journalist Quin Hillyer:

Vote No on Sept 18th and tell the Legislature you know the truth and it's time to do it right.  Stealing from the future of Alabama's children is not the acceptable way to go.  They must do better.

Read article on "Rich Man And Poor Man"

Alabama's Immigration Law Under Attack-- What Moves The Attorney General?

Hear an interview with Mrs. Elois Zeanah of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women on the Alabama Immigration Policy and what the results are.  Where is it headed and why.  Get information on the state whose policy is turning their state as well as the nation's thinking upside down.  It has resulted in lower unemployment rate and that is causing changes in perceptions across the land.  Here is an excellent handout to help on this issue.  Also please hear this very informative interview:

ALERT! 

Alabama’s Immigration Law is Under Attack And Needs YOUR Help
The immigration law is working!

Why, then, is this law under attack by GOP leaders?--Maybe the repeal for Section 29--which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote--may hint at the heart of the matter!!!
Read and be shocked.

PROBLEM:  The Alabama Attorney General has taken what I believe is an unprecedented step to recommend repeal of key sections of Alabama’s immigration law while the judicial review is underway.  In my view, this act jeopardizes Alabama’s law and prejudices the state’s defense.
The AG’s recommendations to repeal key sections of Alabama’s immigration bill that encourage illegal aliens to leave the state would drastically weaken the bill.  His revisions seem to show an unwillingness to vigorously defend the bill, as well as a strange desire to surrender in areas where the state is winning.  According to the papers, the Governor and House Speaker are working with the AG to pre-file a bill to change our immigration law.
ACTION REQUESTED:  Please contact your legislators and request that NO CHANGES, whether major or minor, be voted on by the Legislature until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the Arizona law, which will directly impact Alabama’s law.   This ruling will happen in May or June, so it is not too much to ask our legislators to wait if they are sincere in their statement that they do not intend to weaken the bill.
·    Legislators had the courage to take intense heat and gave us the strongest immigration bill in the nation.  We applaud them!  
·    The law is working:  Trailer parks, jobs, and schools are being emptied as illegals flee the state.  The state is saving money as the demand for public benefits by illegal aliens is down.  Courts have upheld most of the law.  
Why cave, then, to the Obama administration and businesses which want their cheap illegal labor back and rush to change this bill before the Supreme Court rules in just three months?  
Legislative action on the immigration bill BEFORE the U.S. Supreme Court rules in May or June would give the impression that Republicans were never committed to a strong immigration bill, and all the time had planned to use “tweaks” as the Trojan horse to axe this bill.
SECTIONS THE AG WANTS TO REPEAL REMOVE INCENTIVES FOR ILLEGALS TO LEAVE
1.    SECTION 5 authorizes citizens to sue government officials who refuse to enforce Alabama’s immigration law.  The purpose is to ensure that Alabama does not become a sanctuary state.   These sections were not enjoined by either the District Court or the Appeals Court.  One excuse given for repeal is that police fear they will be sued.  This is a fallacious excuse since police are exempted from lawsuits under Section 5(g).
2.    SECTION 10 requires aliens to carry registration documents on their person to show they are in the country legally.  This requirement is not new; it has been federal law for decades and all countries require this.  This requirement, perhaps more than any other, motivates illegal aliens to leave our state since most illegal aliens are caught during routine traffic stops.  
3.    SECTION 13 (a) holds landlords accountable for knowingly renting to illegal aliens, and (b) makes it a crime to encourage an illegal alien to move to the state.  Landlords talk about how their rental houses were vacated immediately after the law went into effect; and the Washington Post reports that trailer parks were emptied as well.  
4.    SECTION 27 prohibits courts from enforcing any contract with an illegal alien if the party knew the alien was in Alabama unlawfully.  Neither the District Court nor the Appeals Court enjoined this section.  So why repeal it?
5.    SECTION 28 requires schools to count the number of children of illegal aliens who attend public schools to better budget education costs.  Alabama citizens must show documentation, so why would the AG want to exempt aliens?  The AG did not cite any law that this provision violates.  
6.    SECTION 29 requires proof of citizenship to register to vote.  This section was not enjoined by EITHER the District Court or the Appeals Court of Appeals, so why repeal it?  I can’t imagine any other Alabama citizen who would not want aliens to prove their eligibility to vote to prevent voter fraud.
The AG’s recommendations for repeal remove sections that encourage illegal aliens to leave Alabama.  The Legislature should not agree to consider any changes to the immigration law that’s working so well until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules so that the Legislature will know which sections, if any, of our immigration law do not pass constitutional muster.  
If you have any questions, please contact:
Elois Zeanah, President
Alabama Federation of Republican Women
Email:  eloisz@hotmail. com