The Texas House Public Education Committee met this past Monday, August 12, 2024 for 9 hours. 7 of those hours the committee spent hosting and questioning invited out of town speakers. Those that support the Committee’s political agenda. At 4pm the Texas taxpayers, moms, dads, grandparents were given a mere 2 minutes to give their testimonies. It was more than evident that “We the People” who vote these politicians into office were just mere serfs in their eyes.
Whole most of the committee members stayed on point and in their seats listening and asking questions of invited quests felt the need to escape their seats with no questions once “We the People” took to testifying.
This is the link to the full House Education Committee Hearing. Public testimony started at 7 hours into the hearing. Watch the lack of respect offered those prior and after to the 7 hour mark. Texas Education Commissioner, Mike Morath was the first to speak on the panel. In his speech he testifies that over 50% o Texas Students are failing the STAAR test. Get that 50%? Why is he still the commissioner?
Below are testimonies from many of us who spoke before the Texas Public Education Committee regarding our failing Education System and their alignment with Globalist organization UNESCO through programs like the International Baccalaureate and HB 1605. HB 1605 is a technology vendor bill ushering in UNESCO’s Open Education Resources leading students further away from textbooks to online devices. All so called Texas Conservatives Representatives voted for HB 1605 with the exception of Senator Bob Hall.
Many of us have testified with before the Texas House and Senate Education committee’s for years telling them to get our children off of one to one devices (technology) and back to a classical education with a textbook, pen and paper. Sadly, our politicians are only interested in catering to lobbyists and vendors have thrown the next generation of students under the bus on their watch.
Montgomery County “For Sale” (Part 9): Precinct 2 Commissioner Riley, MISD Superintendent Stephens Set New Employee Matej Up For Date With Grand Jury
Image: Magnolia Independent School District Director of Finance Garrett Matej, whom Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley and District Superintendent Todd Stephens threw into the Montgomery County Grand Jury hot seat on Thursday, November 9, 2017.
Conroe, November 9 – The Montgomery County Grand Jury’s investigation into the use of government property, services, equipment, and storage facilities by Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal and Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley will take a bit of a different direction today, Thursday, November 9, 2017, as the Grand Jury and District Attorney’s Office will explore Riley’s use of Magnolia Independent School District (MISD) property, personnel, and equipment for his political campaign.
Confidential sources inside MISD have confirmed to The Golden Hammer, Montgomery County’s leading daily newspaper, that Director of Finance Garrett Matej, only two months into his new job, received a subpoena to testify first thing on November 9 with respect to his involvement in the preparation of a questionable invoice to Riley created after this newspaper and Republican political activists Ginger Russell and Kelli Cook uncovered the corruption related to Riley’s October 14, 2017, “campaign kickoff” where he utilized MISD vehicles, equipment, storage facilities, and personnel.
Early in the morning on Saturday, October 14, 2017, Russell and Cook observed, photographed, and video-taped Riley, Magnolia ISD Superintendent Todd Stephens, and at least two Magnolia ISD maintenance workers loading a Magnolia ISD truck at the Magnolia ISD Administration Building with Riley’s personal band equipment stored at the Administration Building for free. The school district employees then transported the equipment to the site of Riley’s political campaign kickoff, unloaded the equipment, participated in Riley’s campaign presentation, loaded the equipment back onto the school district truck, transported it back to the Administration Building, and unloaded the equipment with Riley and Stephens there to help with the unloading and re-storage of the equipment.
On October 14, 2017, as he introduced members of the “Charlie Riley Band” standing among the band’s privately-owned equipment to the sparse crowd during Riley’s campaign kickoff, a political event, and standing in the Unity Park Pavilion, Precinct 2 County Commissioner Charlie Riley of Montgomery County announced,
“We ended up trying to get to places where we had to have some help, so Dr. Todd Stephens [Magnolia ISD Superintendent] gave us or let us borrow a couple guys from Magnolia ISD…maintenance guys who help us load this equipment, and move it around from place to place…and one of them’s missing, but we’ve got Mr. Louis Bennett. He’s our roady!”
Riley openly admitted that, for personal and political campaign purposes, Riley and Stephens use Magnolia Independent School District maintenance workers to help them load, unload, transport, and store their equipment.
During the October 14 Riley “campaign kickoff,” Riley also utilized some County-owned electrical carts as a “train” to carry passengers attending Riley’s campaign kickoff from where they parked to the site of the event. On October 15, 2017, the carts were back in the Commissioners Precinct 2 barnyard behind the locked and gated fence.
On October 16, 2017, Russell submitted a formal request under the Texas Open Records Act to the Magnolia ISD for any purchase orders for the use of the school district truck, equipment, and personnel and any invoices.
After waiting for eleven (11) days, the school district finally responded by October 27, 2017, letter to Russell (shown above). In the response the school district told Russell:
“Enclosed please find documents responsive to your request for public information dated October 16, 2017, a copy of the Accounts payable sent/or to be sent to the Charlie Riley campaign regarding the use of ISD equipment.” (Emphasis added.)
Unbelievably, the Magnolia ISD couldn’t even just provide the letter that was “sent.” Instead, they admitted that the invoice was “sent/to be sent”!!! Obviously, someone in the school district created the invoice after Russell sent the Open Records Act request!
Cook, who serves as the Texas Gulf Coast Regional Coordinator for the Campaign for Liberty and is a close associate of Dr. Ron Paul, the former Congressman and presidential candidate, said, “It appears Magnolia ISD has fabricated a truck rental invoice further implicating them in their gross display of political favoritism. Is this why we pay exorbitant school taxes, so they can funnel money to their favorite political candidate?”
Political activist Kelli Cook.
Russell, who is a Republican Precinct Chair and a renowned expert in public education, told this newspaper:
“Magnolia Independent School Superintendent Dr. Todd Stephens should have been fired immediately by the school board for violating school policy and law for using district vehicles to assist Commissioner Riley with his campaign event. In my opinion the Magnolia ISD School Board is an epic failure and has definitely failed the taxpayer. At this time they are spending taxpayer money on an outside attorney to represent the Superintendent. Why? We now know that the invoice created to cover for Commissioner Riley is a fake. Its creation I am sure came at the request of Dr. Stephens. One wonders how long this collusion and deception has been in play. My hope is the District Attorney puts a stop to these activities once and for all.”
The details about the creation of that invoice have begun to surface. Around approximately October 18, MISD Superintendent Stephens approached Matej and told Matej, “We need an invoice to charge Charlie Riley for the vehicle we let him use this past weekend.” Matej told Stephens that the District does not invoice private individuals like that. Stephens instructed Matej to create an invoice and provide it to Denise Meyers, MISD’s Public Information Officer (who had already received Russell’s Open Records Act request).
Matej, just beginning his second month in his job as Director of Finance, was very uncomfortable with Stephens’ request but feared that there would be reprisal if Matej didn’t accede to it. Matej created an invoice, numbered 8101, in the amount of $100 and provided a copy of it to Meyers.
Phony $100 invoice Director of Finance Garrett Matej created after MISD Superintendent Todd Stephens requested Matej to make it.
There are some interesting facts surrounding Matej’s creation of the phony invoice obviously created to make it appear as though the school district intended to charge Riley for the vehicle and services Riley received for his “campaign kickoff.”
First, Matej has told several people inside the school district that he greatly fears for his job and also has concerns that Stephens forced him to commit an unethical or illegal act. In response to a request to interview him for this article, Matej very politely responded, “Mr. Yollick, Good evening. Hope this email finds you well. While I am flattered that you would reach out to me. I must decline as we have no comment at this point in time. Thank you. Garrett Matej.”
Second, in response to an Open Records Request from conservative activist Kelli Cook, MISD’s Meyers has confirmed that there are no invoices with numbers surrounding the infamous “Invoice 8101” shown above. In correspondence on November 8, Meyers noted, “There are no documents responding to your request” for invoices 8096, 8097, 8098, 8099, 8100, 8102, 8103, 8104, or 8015.”
Third, Matej has admitted to several close associates that there are not invoices similar to the one he created for Riley upon Stephens’ request.
Fourth, Louis Bennett, the MISD Maintenance worker whom Riley recognized as the “roady” for the October 14 “campaign kickoff” event for Riley’s Precinct 2 County Commissioner re-election campaign received 5.27 hours of overtime compensation for working for the school district that weekend. It’s unclear whether the 5.27 hours of overtime would exceed the $100 invoice amount.
It’s genuinely sad that Riley and Stephens would place a young employee in a new position in such a precarious spot. An important question is why Stephens chose not to do his own “dirty work” and create the invoice in his office at MISD since he has administrative staff available to him.
The Grand Jury will hear from Matej, Stephens, and others with respect to Riley’s and Stephen’s use of MISD government property for private and political uses.
The Grand Jury has investigated the following abuses among others:
Under Doyal’s personal direction, a County employee regularly prepared his campaign reports at the Precinct 2 office.
Under Doyal’s personal direction, a County employee prepared political program ads during work hours at the Precinct 2 office.
Under Doyal’s personal direction, a County employee prepared and mailed political checks during work hours and worked on political fundraisers during for Doyal during work hours.
Other county employees in Precinct 2 worked on campaign activities and fundraisers for Doyal during work hours.
The Precinct 2 mechanics shop built platforms during work hours for Doyal’s political fundraisers.
Operations Manager Charlie Riley purchased food for Doyal’s political fundraisers during county business hours.
Doyal approved of the use of County materials, equipment, and time to work on his campaign.
Riley instructed a County employee to “do what you need to do to get it [Doyal’s political campaign reports] finished” including taking a county printer to the County employee’s home.
For the past several years, Riley and Doyal have stored their barbecue trailers they use during political campaigns on County property in the Precinct 2 Commissioners barnyard in Magnolia behind a locked and gated fence. Riley and Doyal have not paid the County anything for the use of that storage space.
Precinct 2 employees have confirmed that Riley and Doyal have had County employees provide automotive repairs and vehicle maintenance to members of Riley’s and Doyal’s families at no charge to them.
Riley and Doyal had the Building Maintenance Department install plumbing and electrical connections at the Precinct 2 barnyard so they could cook there for their political campaigns.
On September 14, 2017, Riley admitted in writing, “As far as the County yard storing my personal cooking trailer, that is correct.”
On October 13, 2017, Riley, his wife Deanne who is a County employee in the position Riley established for her, and several County employees spent a large portion of the County work day making preparations for his political campaign kickoff the next day.
On October 14, 2017, Riley, Stephens, and at least two Magnolia ISD maintenance workers loaded a Magnolia ISD truck at the Magnolia ISD Administration Building with Riley’s personal band equipment stored at the Administration Building for free. The school district employees then transported the equipment to the site of Riley’s political campaign kickoff, unloaded the equipment, participated in Riley’s campaign presentation, loaded the equipment back onto the school district truck, transported it back to the Administration Building, and unloaded the equipment with Riley and Stephens there to help with the unloading and re-storage of the equipment.
On October 14, 2017, Riley utilized some County-owned electrical carts as a “train” to carry passengers attending Riley’s campaign kickoff from where they parked to the site of the event. On October 15, 2017, the carts were back in the Commissioners Precinct 2 barnyard behind the locked and gated fence.
Victor Skinner – Victor is a communications specialist for EAG and joined in 2009. Previously, he was a newspaper journalist.
KATY, Texas – When Texas middle schooler Jordan Wooley recently highlighted a reading assignment that required students to deny God, school administrators, her teacher, and some students painted her as a liar.
But a flood of support from residents across the state, including and Gov. Greg Abbott, is buoying her spirits as she heads to the Governor’s Mansion Saturday to share her story.
Wooley, 12, testified before the Katy Independent School Board last Monday about a reading assignment at West Memorial Junior High in which her teacher instructed students to label statements as fact, opinion or commonplace assertion, which her teacher characterized as a myth.
When Wooley and numerous other students answered fact to the statement “There is a God,” the teacher told them they’re wrong, God is a myth, Wooley said.
Superintendent Alton Frailey vowed to investigate the incident, and the next day apologized to Wooley. The district issued a statement that said the “ill-conceived” assignment “included an item that was unnecessary for achieving the instructional standard,” Fox 26 reports.
But the next day Frailey called a press conference to allege Wooley is a liar and countering Wooley’s assertions the assignment was graded, and students would be penalized if they answered that “fact” to “There is a God.”
“Nothing that the principal has found supports the assertions that the teacher deliberately threatened (students), or tried to force them to deny God,” Frailey said, according to ABC 13. “In the investigation those assertions were not corroborated by the other students. Was the activity graded? It was not graded. Was it 40 percent of their grade? Were the students told they had to deny God? No one corroborated that, at all.”
“If I had any reason to believe or evidence to support that a teacher did what has been alleged I would stand with Jordan, as well,” he said. But when a flood of students and parents later confirmed Wooley’s account, Frailey broke his word and issued a politically correct statement instead.
Frailey’s comments, of course, put a target on Wooley’s back and some of her classmates reacted accordingly with taunts and harassment for standing up for her faith. At the same time, Gov. Greg Abbott spoke out in support of Wooley, something her mother, Chantel Wooley, said has lifted her spirits.
“Governor Abbott is the only person in any position of authority in Texas that stood up for Jordan from the very beginning of this ordeal. He set an example of what it means to stand up for the truth and God,” Chantel Wooley said.
“His instinct was to see the truth, coming from a child. What people do not know, is how bad Jordan was hurting at school after she spoke out publicly, how many people turned away from her, including her principal, the Katy ISD school board and Superintendent Frailey,” she continued.
“She was so upset – she said no one believes me mom, sent via text messages from school. That was when I saw the tweet by Gov. Abbott. I texted her to let her know that the governor stood with her and it changed everything.”
Text messages between Wooley and her mother illustrate how stressful the situation has been at school since Frailey attacked Wooley.
“I have been getting both good and bad sides at school, but I just ignore the bad and thank the good,” Wooley texted her mother.
“Don’t stress my love. You told the truth. That is all that matters,” Chantel Wooley replied.
“People are sticking up the middle finger to me. People are saying curse words at me. People are saying I am an attention seeking hog that’s just a b’,” Woodley replied.
“The governor stands with you,” Chantel texted back.
“OMG,” Wooley responded.
Chantel texted Wooley a link to Abbott’s tweet: “I’m proud of this 7th grader’s unyielding commitment to God. She’s Texas tough. #IStandWithJordan.”
“Dang!” Wooley replied.
Abbott’s staff later invited Wooley to visit the Governor’s Mansion this Saturday, which she gladly accepted.
But Abbott is not the only Texan to stand with Jordan, and God.
The Wooleys have also received a flood of support from not only parents and students in the Katy ISD, but from across the state of Texas.
“I am proud of the courage shown by Jordan, some of her peers and their parents. In today’s environment, where administrators are trained by TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) to quiet opposition and shun parents who stand up for their children, I think this was a great step forward for shoring up student and parental rights. People need to be of good courage. – Kim Belcher, Katy ISD parent.”
“As a Texas Mom, I applaud Governor Abbott’s support of Jordan Wooley and her family by inviting them to the Governor’s mansion. It is because of one child, with the courage to question what she and her classmates were being taught, which has given other students and their parents the courage to question and speak out publicly. For that, I am forever grateful to them. We now see clearly the real impact on students of TASA’s (Texas Assoc. of School Administrators) New Vision for Texas Public Education, which mirrors the vision of the Common Core State Standards nationally. The fact is, it was Alton Frailey, Katy ISD’s superintendent, who led the implementation of this vision, as president of TASA.
“I also applaud Gov. Abbott for letting Texas parents know, that Alton Frailey is not on the list of possible candidates to replace resigning Commissioner of Education, Michael Williams. – Alice Linahan, Argyle, Texas.”
“I am so proud of the courage Jordan has shown in standing up for her faith and God. I pray Jordan’s courage and testimony awaken parents to what is happening in classrooms in America as a result of the nationalization of education. – Meg Bakich, Highland Park, Texas.”
“What happened in Katy ISD is due to the shift away from a traditional academic education, based on fact and knowledge to the 21st Century/Common Core model under education reform, based on opinion and the subjective. Children need to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic and history that has not been revised to fulfill a political agenda or bias. Through Jordan’s courage, TASA’s new vision of education has now been exposed in Texas. – Mellany Lamb, Lewisville, Texas.”
“Jordan Woolery and her bravery I can pray will be modeled after others her age. I am so proud of her and abhor the Katy Administration for marginalizing her for speaking up. Our education system has changed drastically and unfortunately it is not geared to teaching ‘Absolute Truth’ or academic achievement any longer. Everything is now up for debate with the radical education reform. – Ginger Russell, Montgomery, Texas.”
“By standing up for herself, Jordan- perhaps unknowingly- stands up for me. By defending her faith in God, she defends mine, and for this I am grateful. I am further grateful for what has become a restoration of my confidence in the character of our children. The type of character exhibited by this young lady over the past few days is an example that adults would do well to likewise demonstrate. Her mother must be an incredible example of honor and courage for Jordan to show such principle, regardless of whatever lack of peer approval she may garner, whatever resistance and outright defamation she may be required to endure.
“I am very grateful to Jordan for her principle, honesty, and courage. – Joe Palmer, Burleson, Texas.”
Here’s Wooley’s original statement to the school board:
I posted an article yesterday revealing a situation I perceive to be a “Conflict of Interest” taking place in the Huntsville Independent School District. Read it HERE.
Shortly after posting the article I received the following comments from Huntsville ISD school
board member,Sam Moak.
I am Sam Moak. I am a Christian, a husband, a father and a son. Yes my wife works at Education Service Center Region VI. So did my mother, for 37 years. I do not follow anyone and I think for myself. Am I perfect, no, but I am honest and have done nothing wrong. Yes, our children did attend Alpha Omega Academy, a wonderful Christian school. It was a choice as Christians we made and I am not afraid of. However, due to situations related to my wife’s illness, we choose to move to HISD. I am a graduate of HISD and proud of both AOA and HISD. CSCOPE is a political issue. Unfortunately, all the children of Texas are victims of this political battle. I only want what is the best for all the children of Huntsville. HISD cannot afford, nor can the vast majority of school districts in Texas, to hire a curriculum writer. Therefore, long before I was on the HISD School Board, the decision was made to use CSCOPE as a resource. It’s use was and never has been mandated at HISD. I am tired of hearing Mrs. Russell and her mother, Janice Van Cleave, repeat over and over the problems with CSCOPE. They point to 3 or 4 lessons in the social studies segment and brand the entire 1600 lessons as bad. Mrs. Russell you choose to homeschool your child(ren) and your mother, Janice Van Cleave, has made quite a nice living selling over 89 education products to homeschoolers, some of which is written (oh Horror), in other languages. I find nothing wrong with families that choose to homeschool, however, I suspect your motives are not true. You use the Tea Party and Senator Dan Patrick and any means you can to attack public school districts and the wonderful money saving Education Service Centers throughout our state. It would cost our school districts, and thus the taxpayers, millions of dollars to replace the Education Service Centers. But is your real purpose to support a voucher system in Texas? A system that allows folks who can afford to segregate their children from other children? Or is it to help promote your choice of homeschooling and to sell education material written by your mother? Or do you Mrs. Russell support purchasing our children’s curriculum from a foreign based entity (Pearson) that sells curriculum to 70 other countries including Islamic ones? What is your educational background? Training? What makes you such a self proclaimed expert on education?
Whistleblower responses….
Ginger Russell
Mr. Moak,
I did not wake up one day and decide to fight the public school system in Texas. Not by a long shot. I have always been politically active and my mother has not. Unfortunately the cause fell in my lap when mom asked me to look into a situation she found her self in.
My mother is in her 70’s and retired. She spends time serving her community by visiting widows in nursing homes and tutoring. This all started over a year ago when she tried to tutor some children in her local school district. When she asked them where their textbooks were they said they had none. (RED FLAG) The teacher knew mom’s reputation and gave her a copy of a CSCOPE science lesson. Finding it riddled with errors she asked for additional lessons and was refused. (RED FLAG) She had even taught in this particular school district years earlier prior to her writing. Needless to say she ended up in her local ESC in Waco where they refused to let her see the CSCOPE lessons as well. The actions and behavior by all involved raised some serious (RED FLAGS). I put mom in contact with SBOE chairman Barbara Cargill who had not heard of CSCOPE either and she also requested the ESC to give her a password and they refused (RED FLAG). Barbara was not able to get a password to CSCOPE for six months until Gov Perry got involved (RED FLAG).
When the CSCOPE reps in Austin found out who mom was they drove to her local town of Marlin to meet with her. SERIOUSLY! I along with another gentlemen attended the meeting to their surprise. They had hoped they could team up on her 5 to 1 and were not happy with our presence. I have the whole meeting recorded HERE. It is long and boring. But at one point in the conversation I handed the CSCOPE State Coordinator, the Islamic Powerpoint and he tries to deny it (RED FLAG).
I then filed a Public Information Request and TESCCC asked the attorney General to deem them a “non governmental entity” which he denied. They also stated that mom was a CSCOPE competitor in hopes he would rule on their behalf. The lie has made it’s round through the education system.
We then started going public and teachers would contact us anonymously asking for help. They informed us that their administrators were having them to sign non disclosure statements that they would not release the contents or say anything negative about it. (RED FLAG).
I spoke at the Willis ISD Board meeting in October in regard to CSCOPE. I had no idea at the time who Lindy McCullogh (ESC CSCOPE COORDINATOR) was or that she was there. She spoke after me and was obviously outraged that I had spoke out against CSCOPE. (RED FLAG)
I later called ESC director Brent Hawkins and in our conversation he said “you will not tear apart something we implemented”. (RED FLAG)
Now, with all the flags and strange behavior by some many educators in regard to CSCOPE we knew something had to be done. By this time a couple of veteran educators had contacted us and started talking.
Needless to say when you have an educational program that is riddled with the controversial material, parents can’t see it, teachers silenced and threatened with prosecution for releasing content, etc, that was enough RED FLAGS for us.
Being politically active I had a personal meeting with the LT Governor in January. Dewhurst said he would have the chairman of the Senate Education Committee which was Dan Patrick hold an education hearing on it. And he did. The rest is history.
I have not even got into the financials in regard to CSCOPE or their lack of transparency.
It has taken me over a year to finally find out what CSCOPE is all about and it was to implement “project based learning”(PBL) in the schools. PBL is based on the collective not individual achievement. PBL is quite the opposite of a Classical Education that your children received at Alpha Omega.
Huntsville ISD has spent thousands attended TASA’s Transformation Academies which is all about PBL. Why? Why do you support this radical change?
Now this week I get an article about Huntsville ISD’s waiver request. I saw your last name and it rang a bell with due to the fact that your wife had sent me twitter feeds months back and I put the pieces together. The more I research the more of this I find. It is one big spider web and the tax payers are paying out the butt for it.
How christian conservatives can set back and ignore what is going on is beyond me, I can’t do it. My children and grandchildren deserve better.
As for as mom and her books she has been accused of doing this for money. We got where we just laugh. If anything this has cost us both.
I am by no way a self proclaimed expert on education. Yes, I did home school both of my children who are now college graduates and married. But I do know it is wrong to pass out verses of the Quran to students, I know it is wrong to have students draw new Communist Flags,I know it is wrong to have students learn about the sex life of Islamic Women, etc, etc.. enough on the lessons. I know it was unacceptable and wrong to not allow parents to view what their children were taught. I know it is wrong to have teachers threatened with a lawsuit for disclosing content or speaking negatively about a curriculum. How you can ignore this? How can you vote to purchase this crap again and petition the state for a waiver is beyond me.
I want you to know yes mom and I have a following of conservative christian activist… but there are 100’s across the state that supply us information as to what is going on in their local area. We are not in this alone, not by a long shot. The days of our local school districts hiding and spending money with no oversight is over.
I am sure your and your wife are wonderful loving christian parents.
But I do wonder why and how you and other proclaimed christian people can set back and ignore this progressive ideology that is taking over our school system.
If you have any further questions I will be happy to answer them.
Ginger Russell
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD”
~Psalms 33:12~
Janice VanCleave
This email is being sent to Sam Moak, a Huntsville ISD School Board Member, whose wife works at Region 6 and sells CSCOPE to the Huntsville ISD. Mr.Moak left a comment on www.redhotconservative.com stating that he is tired of me and my daughter, Ginger Russell, attacking CSCOPE. I don’t want to misquote Mr. Moak, so I’ll paste his comments here:
” I am tired of hearing Mrs. Russell and her mother, Janice Van Cleave, repeat over and over the problems with CSCOPE. They point to 3 or 4 lessons in the social studies segment and brand the entire 1600 lessons as bad. Mrs. Russell you choose to homeschool your child(ren) and your mother, Janice Van Cleave, has made quite a nice living selling over 89 education products to homeschoolers, some of which is written (oh Horror), in other languages. I find nothing wrong with families that choose to homeschool, however, I suspect your motives are not true. You use the Tea Party and Senator Dan Patrick and any means you can to attack public school districts and the wonderful money saving Education Service Centers throughout our state. It would cost our school districts, and thus the taxpayers, millions of dollars to replace the Education Service Centers. But is your real purpose to support a voucher system in Texas? A system that allows folks who can afford to segregate their children from other children? Or is it to help promote your choice of homeschooling and to sell education material written by your mother? Or do you Mrs. Russell support purchasing our children’s curriculum from a foreign based entity (Pearson) that sells curriculum to 70 other countries including Islamic ones? What is your educational background? Training? What makes you such a self proclaimed expert on education?”
Hi Sam,
I am Ginger Russell’s mother, Janice VanCleave and want to address some of the points you have made.
First, concerned citizens do not have to have an education background to question what is being taught in the public school. But, I do have an education background and continue to study up todate educational teaching method that are applicable for classroom as well as home study. My background includes 27 years in public schools, mostly in Texas. My second career was writing science experiment books for kids and educators. My third career or I might say project is creating a science website with the primary focus on science fair projects, thus I feel very qualified to evaluate the CSCOPE Performance Indicators as well as other progressive Project Based Learning lessons (PBL). Those creating PBL lessons do not truly understand how to prepare students to use critical thinking to solve problems. They fail to provide kids with the tools for critical thinking.
this is because they are using the constructivist/progressive teaching method, which assumes students come to class with the foundation knowledge and using this can discover for themselves. Parents can best understand this method by remember their child’s first science fair project or maybe every science fair project. The teacher announces that everyone is to do a science fair project–gives a list of all the necessary parts and sends them off. This is when I receive panic emails from kids and parents –How does one do a science fair project? Same method is being used with all PBL. No critical thinking–just anxiety and frustration. Now that the CSCOPE lessons are public domain, I can provide you with more information.
About using 2 to 3 social studies lessons to condemn an entire curriculum. If you had listened to the Senate Education Committee hearing on CSCOPE, you would have heard evidence of many lessons. Barbara Cargill, chair of the state board of education had in her hands a folder full of examples that were pointed out to the committee. These were CSCOPE science, math, ELAR and social studies lessons all with errors and/or biases. How many of the CSCOPE lessons have you personally evaluated? Do the school board members at Huntsville ISD have passwords to the CSCOPE website?
FYI: After being refused a password to CSCOPE for six months, Governor Perry had to request that Barbara Cargill, the chair of the State Board of Education, be given a password to the CSCOPE website. This tells you how secretive the content of the CSCOPE lessons were prior to the Senate Education Committee hearing on CSCOPE. Again, how many CSCOPE lessons have you evaluated?
I have asked and received all science lessons K-8 from teachers who must remain anonymous. This is a sad statement. The CSCOPE lessons should have been public domain from the start. The ESCs are not suppose to support any one vendor and they become a vendor themselves. The ESCs are suppose to provide service to a specific region and they grouped together creating a one-size-fits-all curriculum with the goal of educating students across Texas EQUALLY. This can only be done by scripting lessons and school administrators monitor educators to force them to follow the script. Some give teachers more flexibility but still provide them with CSCOPE lessons that have never been evaluated for correctness. You sir, refuse to believe me when I tell you that all the the science lessons incorrectly present the scientific method which is 40% of the Science STAAR Tests. Not one CSCOPE administrator or School Board Member wants proof. I’ll start posting examples onWWW.TXCSCOPEREVIEW.com
As to Pearson Publishing, this company basically controls Texas Education now. Pearson helps write the STAAR/EOCs. Pearson publishes and grades the STAAR/EOCs. Pearson decides the evaluation of STAAR/EOC grades, thus this foreign based company controls what students are taught and whether they have mastered the concepts. Pearson also publishes study books for the STAAR/EOC tests. If schools purchased any materials it should be these study guides. Who knows more about the STAAR/EOCs than the company that writes and prints these tests? Does Pearson Publishing have an unfair advantage in the education market in Texas, you bet! Do the ESCs have an unfair market advantage over education materials sold in Texas? No doubt about it. Of course the ESCs have better prices for their vendor products, the state of Texas pays their employess, pays for offices, in fact pays all overhead. What the ESCs sell is pure non-taxed profit. Do the ESCs fairly compete with other vendors–No. I think you call this a monopoly. Now the CSCOPE money trail would be interesting. Where is all this money? I would like the ESCs to stop being vendors and start being independent service centers again. There is nothing fun and personnal about the ESCs now. It was fun to have the teacher workroom where educators and even parents could go to make cutouts for their class. This is gone and it was important. Some ESCs loaned out science critters. This should be part of every ESC. The ESCs could be providing wonderful services to schools in their district, instead the atmosphere at the ESCs is cloaked in secrecy. You have the STAFFERs who are kept in the dark and the CSCOPE group whispering and making new plans (documented statement from an observer).
Pearson Publishing also sponsors TASA/TASB the private organization that school board members and superintendents pay membership and conference fees using the school taxes. This is no small amount— $100 Million has been estimated from the information collected from school districts. Yes, some of this money is for things like school insurance. But, why not buy from some local group? Citizens pay school taxes, superintendents and school board members give some of it to a private organization that is sabatoging STATE Education with their Vision Learning program to transform Texas Education. Were school taxes used to pay for the anyone from your school district to attend the TASA transition training?
Sam, I am not sure I understand this statement you made:
Janice Van Cleave, has made quite a nice living selling over 89 education products to homeschoolers, some of which is written (oh Horror), in other languages.
How I make my living has nothing to do with my questions of what is being taught in the Texas public schools. I do not write textbooks, nor do I write K-12 curriculum for every subject. I write science experiment books for kids and resource science/math books for educators. In no way is my work competitive with CSCOPE. In fact, prior to the development of CSCOPE in 2006, I was hired by many of the Texas Education Service Centers to present science workshops for Texas Educators. Region 12 is near my home and I have been involved with this group since 1975 as a teacher in the region as well as an author. As a science author, I was an honorary member of the Region 12 Science Consortium. I payed my own way to event and provided supplies and science books to the teachers in this group. Becca Bell, the CSCOPE director at Region 12 recently informed me that she never heard of an honorary member. I was welcomed at Region 12 prior to my asking to view the CSCOPE lessons. I dropped in with supplies and was welcomed. CSCOPE has taken the fun out everything it touches.
As to your comment “OH Horror” in reference to the foreign translations. It is strange that school board members and superintendents responsible for purchasing CSCOPE for their schools feel the need to attack me and my work. I have met with Wade Labay, STATE CSCOPE director, and we have respect for each other though we disagree about CSCOPE. Mr. Lebay doesn’t share your view of me or my work. During a meeting with Mr. Lebay and Ed Vega, supervisor of CSCOPE curriculum, Ed brought a copy of one of my books and asked me to authograph it. I will contact these men today and ask them to give me a reference to post.
As to only 2 to 3 social studies lessons being incorrect. These lessons caught the eye of the news media and continued to be discussed. But it was the lack of transparency that first alarmed me and got the news media interested. It was hard to get people to believe that in Texas Public Schools lessons were being taught that parents were not allowed to view. It was hard to get people to believe that teachers were being so micromanaged. Parents are aware of the truth now and it will be difficult for superintendents and school boards to continue purchasing unapproved education materials. Parents and concerned citizens will start demanding to be part of the decision making of the school. School board members are suppose to represent the community, but education materials have become a very profitable business for the 20 ESCs.
Is there any conflict of interest in you being on a region 6 school board where you approve the CSCOPE product that your wife who works at Region 6 sells? Of course there is.
As to my supporting the voucher system. I know very little about this. As to people that can afford to use voucher so they can segregate their children from public schools. What’s the difference in putting children in private schools instead of sending them to public schools? I cannot say that I support the voucher system, but do support parents that choose the best education for their children and if they think the public schools are not providing this, then they should have some way to do so without having to move. I live near Marlin Texas. The Marlin ISD schools have failed the state tests for so many years that it is not even news worthy. Seven consecutive years of failure makes it difficult for families that have no choice but care about their children’s education. Families have taken new jobs so that they can move out of Marlin.
Yes, Marlin ISD uses CSCOPE and that is where I was first introduced to this curriculum. A friend with an afterschool program asked me to tutor elementary children in science and math. The children in Marlin ISD are not issued text books. Does Huntsville ISD provide textbooks to students? I hope so because without textbooks parents have no clue what is being taught to their children. Without textbooks, kids have no resources to do any homestudy. Without textbooks, the education of our kids is limited to what teachers present in class and how much students remember. Yes, class notebooks are required in every class at all grade levels. Thus, the class notebook and what students write in it is all students have to review at home for class tests as well as the STAAR Test.
One elementary teacher that taught in a CSCOPE school last year was forced to follow the CSCOPE lessons. She insisted on providing science books to her students. The administration did not want teachers using books because as promoted by the CSCOPE vendor (including region 6), even books aligned with the revised TEKS cannot update changes in the TEKs as often as the CSCOPE online curriculum can. This is a false statement in that the TEKS for a subject are not changed often. The science TEKS were introduced in the fall of 2010 and the next science TEKS revision will be introduced in 2016. The same is true for TEKS in other subjects. Another false statement promoted by Region 6 and the other 19 ESCs (the CSCOPE Vendor) is that books that are not aligned with the revised TEKS do not have information needed to teach these new TEKS. Not True.
Science books with the TEKS for TAKS Tests have the same information with very few changes as the revised science books aligned with the new TEKS for STAAR Tests.
Did you know that the 20 ESCs were paid $100 million dollars to prepare transition materials for Texas Eductors. YES I said $100 Million. Did they do it? Ask your local Region 6 for copies of this material. It was the transition material teachers needed. But 800 school districts were sold CSCOPE. Why? The ESCs had FREE material for the Texas Teachers. I have copies of this material. Do your teachers?
Did you know that Region 6 received $1,041,156, just to present workshops for teachers in Region 6 during the summer of 2010 through the spring of 2011. Did your teachers attend? Were they invited?
In 2011 Region 6 received $2,914,384 Million, yes almost $3 MILLION dollars just to present workshops to Texas Teachers so that they would be prepared to present the new social studies and math TEKs.
There was never a reason for CSCOPE—the 20 ESCs received a total of another $100 Million dollars to prepare Texas Educators to adapt their teaching materials to the new TEKS. Were the Huntsville teachers at these workshops or did Region 6 sell Huntsville CSCOPE materials instead of providing the FREE materials they were paid millions of dollars to prepare, present and post on the Project Share?
Are these the same ESCs that you have such concern about?
At the bottom of this note I have a copy of the millions paid to Region 6. I will send this letter to region 6 and request an account of what they did with more than $4 million dollars. They didn’t give $4 million dollars of service to the educators in region 6. Instead they sold CSCOPE to school districts and some such as Huntsville are still standing behind the CSCOPE product. Maybe you should be asking Region 6 why they sold CSCOPE instead of giving it to your free– $4 million dollars is a lot of money and it should have provided your school with something free.
Note: The attached files show how much each of the 20 ESCs received in two years to provide materials that Texas teachers still don’t know anything about. Let me suggest that you ask Region 6 to pull out that Rider 42 TEKS materials they were paid millions to present and start giving those workshops now. This solves the problem of not having the CSCOPE lessons.
About these Free Rider 42 TEKS Workshops.
The 81 Texas Legislature gave TEA via Rider 42 grant over $150 MILLION— I emphasize that this is MILLIONS of dollars. The objective being for the 20 ESCs to prepare materials so that teachers could easily transition from the TEKS for TAKS tests to the revised TEKS for STAAR TESTs. Science and ELAR Rider 42 academies were to be presented during the summer of 2010. All the 20 ESCs were given $50 MILLION dollars to create science and ELAR Rider 42 PD materials, post it on the Project Share website and give face-to-face hands-on Science and ELAR workshops.
Did all the teachers from Huntsville ISD attend these special multi-million dollar workshops that were FREE. These workshops were to provide information so that teachers could easily transition from the Science and ELAR TEKS/TAKS to the TEKS/STAAR. Again, the 20 ESCs were paid $50 MILLION dollars to write materials so that all Texas teachers would start the 2010-2011 school year prepared.
The Rider 42 materials were to show a side-by-side comparison of the two sets of TEKS, old with the new. Teachers were to be shown any old TEKS that included in the new TEKS. Teachers were to be shown new TEKS not used the previous year. In other words, the two sets of TEKS were to be totally compared. This was to be done so that teachers could modify their TEKS/TAKS scope and sequence. To modify their curriculum. To modify the lessons used with the TEKS/TAKS so that the new TEKS/STAAR would be emphasized.
The main differences between the two sets of TEKS for a specific subject mainly referenced an increase in content. It is not that the revised TEKS were so much more rigorous, it is the STAAR tests that are more rigorous. This means that the TEKS need to be considered the minimum framework and lessons need to do much more than be aligned with the TEKS. This is one reason CSCOPE does not properly prepare students for the state tests Another reason is that the CSCOPE lessons have so many factual errors.
Administrators and school board members who have purchased CSCOPE seem not to be aware that this free material was prepared and that the 20 ESCs admited that they did nothing special to notify Texas Schools about it. Yes a few teachers saw the workshops listed in the catalog of each ESC, but it should have been the most attended workshops ever given. This was the transition material that allowed teachers to revise their lessons so that new curriculum and lessons were not needed. Veteran teachers didn’t have to attend workshops to know this, but they were vilified any time they tried to provide information. The 20 ESCs had a product(CSCOPE) they wanted to sell. The big selling point for CSCOPE was that it provided all the materials teachers needed for the new TEKS. The ESCs instructed administrators that lessons for TEKS/TAKS could not be used for the new TEKS/STAAR–this was a lie.
Veteran teachers knew this but were said to be lazy and only wanted to use their old lessons because they were used to them. Veteran teachers were said to be out of date and didn’t want to spend the time learning the new modern 21st Century Education Technology that the online CSCOPE curriculum could provide. The ESCs went so far as to train administrators that Veteran teachers were trouble makers. The slide shown is from an ESC training power point for Administrators.
One administrator said that CSCOPE fills the gap between the textbooks aligned with TEKS/TAKS until textbooks for TEKS/STAAR are published. This identifies this administrators lack of knowledge of the content of textbooks. Other than add the new TEKS with comments, the science content of the old and revised textbook changes so very little. New pictures and graphs, a face lift so to speak. So for the ESCs to claim textbooks are not useful for our modern technology world are in it for the money because they are only trying to sell their online CSCOPE product.
Parents need to demand that the school provide as well as use textbooks in every class. Yes, there are things in textbooks that parents are not going to approve of, but at least they are aware of this. Unlike the CSCOPE lessons that remained hidden from parents for six years. Parents are now aware and will be more questioning of what is being taught in 2012-2013. The terms used to confuse parents in the past won’t work because they now know what all the education double talk given by CSCOPE schools mean.
The Texas Tribune posted an article titled “Dewhurst, Patrick Continue Push to End CSCOPE”. The article is riddled with passionate comments. To no surprise Thomas Ratliff who serves on the Texas State Board of Education chimed in with his rants.
THE FOLLOWING IS MY EXCHANGE WITH TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER THOMAS RATLIFF.
I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THIS MAN IS A PUBLIC SERVANT.
One would never believe an attempt at doing a good deed of tutoring children would lead you to discover a Marxist/Communist takeover of Texas Schools (public, charter and private). Well that is what happened to retired Science Author Janice VanCleave. VanCleave who began to question what was going on when refused by her local school district of Marlin, Texas and the Texas Education Service Center XII in Waco access to lessons to help tutor the children who had no textbooks. The lessons were locked behind a password protected online curriculum called Cscope and lessons were barred from being released or viewed.
After further research it was discovered the Marxist philosophy behind Cscope and numerous lessons with a bias toward Communism pro Islam content. The takeover I would say has become one of the biggest education scandals in Texas History due to the number of school districts involved. Is your local school district using Cscope? Check HERE.
VanCleave (mom) and I have been working overtime this past year exposing the Cscope Corruption in our Texas Schools. I guess you can say we have received our gold crown in this fight. Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC) who owns Cscope has made a powerpoint now listing three of their critics, two being mom and I, Janice VanCleave and Ginger Russell along with Ann Kunkel. I may be wrong but do Govt Agencies usually come out calling out their critics (private citizens) by name. VanCleave and I both testified before the State Board of Education and the Texas Senate Education Committee in regard to our concerns with Cscope. Are the owners of Cscope (TESCCC) they now intimidating government witnesses?
Why would they list their critics in their Summer Conference promotion? Are they having trouble getting speakers due to the fact the Cscope is now exposed for what it is, Control the Teacher, Eliminate the Parent and Indoctrinate the Children.
Unfortunately this isn’t the first time Cscope Reps have tried intimidation to shut their opposition down. I spoke at Willis ISD board meeting about Cscope not knowing the Cscope Representative from ESC VI, Linday McCulloch was in the room. She spoke after me but does not reveal her true identity or where she works.
In another attempt to alert community leaders, teachers and superintendents to my concerns with Cscope. I emailed superintendent Dan Powell with Crowley ISD and received the following response….
This is absolute non-sense! You are either crazy or ridiculously mistaken. As a Christian and patriotic American, I am most offended by your lies! Take me off your mailing list immediately, and find a shrink.
Dan Powell
I have also made attempts to speak before the board of directors of Texas Education Service Center VI. Assistant Director Brett Hawkins told me “You are not going to tear apart something they have implemented”.
I have been using twitter for months in an attempt to alert parents across the state about Cscope. State workers are finding it a way to slander my mother Janice VanCleave and myself. Debbie Smith from Texas Education Service Center VI has left me the following tweets.
Debbie Smith
I sent the following email to teachers, community members etc.. Below this email are responses I received from school employees. The reactions I get have bring me to wonder why is there such a “LOVE” for Cscope?
Attention Teachers, Parents, Taxpayers
We have a curriculum in over 70% of Texas Schools called Cscope that is based on a Marxist/Communist Philosophy of Collectivism. Has your local school district purchased it? Check HERE.
Senator Dan Patrick held an Senate Education Committee Hearing on Cscope January 31st. Here is his statement.
Teachers, if school administration is holding your feet to the fire and demanding that you teach Cscope please contact Senator Patrick @dan.patrick@senate.state.tx.us. or you can contact us HERE anonymously.
Cscope has come under heavy scrutiny after finding out that teachers were required to sign a DULA where they would not release the contents or say anything negative about it. It was also discovered that pro Islamic content and pro communistic lessons are being taught.
CSCOPE =CONROL the TEACHERS, ELIMINATING the PARENTS & INDOCTRINATE CHILDREN.
Responses.
Sara Martinez Superintendent Secretary at Valley Mills ISD sent me the following response in my attempt to alert the community about Cscope.
You have your own personal agenda to make money selling your product therefore you want everyone to do away with C-Scope to buy your Science Curriculum. I was taught about communism, socialism and Islam etc. when I was in High School in my World History Class. THIS IS OK BECAUSE IT IS A PART OF OUR WORLD HISTORY therefore it is not a surprise that they included lessons about these in the C-SCOPE curriculum. I do not have any interest in reading the way you twist things to benefit your cause please remove me from your mailing list.
Thanks,
Sara Martinez
Valley Mills ISD
Valley Mills ISD Business Manager Brenda Byrom sent me the following emails.
I don’t know where you get your information or how you can so distort an issue as much as you are doing.
I suppose when I was a student in public schools and our textbooks taught us about Hitler and Stalin that they were teaching us about communism and we should have burned the textbooks.
Your email is ridiculous and I want to be removed from your email list.
Brenda Byrom
Before you send out emails regarding education, you might want to check your grammar. The school that I attended and the one that taught my kids, made sure that we could type a coherent sentence. Obviously the one you attended did not, two sentences and neither one of them is correct. Lady you are a JOKE!!!!!! You do not have any idea how stupid you sound and how much of an idiot that your emails make you appear to be.
Dr. Cathy Moak is the Component Director for School Transformation and Digital Learning at ESC 6
