Teacher training in Common Core
Houston Independent School District received 30 Million in race to the top money. States or districts receiving funds are obligated to implement common core. HISD along with the Texas Education Agency are implementing the common core standards through their Texas Virtual School Network online school, Texas Connections Academy. I called the school @ 281-661-8293 and their representative validated they were in fact common core aligned. So when you hear that Common Core is illegal in Texas don’t buy it. Our education establishment has found many loopholes in transforming our education system.
The Blaze addresses Texas Connections Academy.
“MAN GOT TO THE MOON USING A BIG CHIEF TABLET”
Please make copies of the following chart and distribute throughout your community. You will find every school district is radically transforming the way students are taught. This transformation is filled with various lingo, progressive, 21 Century Learning, Project Based Learning, Student led, outcome based, common core, Cscope, rigor, collaborative, etc….
Along with this transformation is a radical collection of your CHILD’S PERSONAL data. Texas has set up a Longitudinal Data System, funded by the federal government.
Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’s) , once anonymous to most parents and tax-payers is a tax funded state agency. In 2013 it was discovered the ESC directors had created the Marxist curriculum system, Cscope aka “Teks resource System” leasing it to over 850+ Texas School Districts. Texas Senator Dan Patrick called for a state audit of the of the ESC’s financials in relation to the curriculum. It was no surprise to to find that the ESC’s accounting practices were abysmal.Despite the millions are uncounted for school districst still are funding these agencies by signing multiple service contracts and holding various professional development courses. You can view the state audit report HERE.
The ESC’s thorough Cscope and other programs have worked on transforming our education system to a more progressive one. Students will no longer be graded on their individual achievement but as a collective group. The teaching philosophy is a Marxist one based on the collective and is called Project Based Learning. There is not a school district in the state of Texas that is not implementing Project Based Learning with the help of their local ESC’s. Cscope was discovered to share vast similarities with Common Core with it’s”collective” teaching philosophy and data mining. In a nut shell Project Based Learning is meant to level the playing field amongst students. Below you will find a chart detailing the vast difference in a traditional education and a progressive/collective one. Unfortunately for our students the transformation has been taking place for about 7 years unbeknownst to parents and taxpayers. It will only be when parents and taxpayers start showing up at their local school boards and demand transparency and accountability as well asking their teachers and administrators Can I See what you are teaching my child and who is profiting from it will things change.
There are 20 ESC’s across the state of Texas. In 1967 the Texas legislature along with the Texas State Board of Education created 20 ESC’s to assist local district with media services and instruction-related services for teachers. The ESC’s have evolved into a big business making millions through our local school districts. Parents and taxpayers need to be involved in your local school district researching the amount of taxpayer money funding these agencies.
B
“Common Core David Coleman’s Next Deception: The New AP U. S. History Exam:
By Dr. Susan Berry
Polls increasingly show that as more Americans learn about the Common Core standards, they don’t like what they see.
Hopefully, Americans will feel the same way as they learn more about how the new Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History exam will decimate the teaching of traditional American history, turning it into a leftist view of an America that is based on identity politics rather than a Constitution meant to protect the rights of individual freedoms.
The new AP U.S. History exam has been authorized under David Coleman, known as the “architect” of the Common Core standards and, now, the president of the College Board, the organization responsible for the SAT college entrance exam and the various Advanced Placement exams.
Conservative commentator Stanley Kurtz, a contributing editor for National Review Online, wrote on Thursday about the secretive manner in which the AP U.S. History exam was rolled out as well as the significance of this new exam.
“We are witnessing a coordinated, two-pronged effort to effectively federalize all of American K-12 education, while shifting its content sharply to the left,” Kurtz states.
He explains that while the College Board under Coleman has put on a public display of a lengthy “framework” for the new AP U.S. History exam, that framework actually contains only a few sample questions.
“Sources tell me, however, that a complete sample exam has to be released, although only to certified AP U.S. History teachers,” Kurtz continues. “Those teachers have been warned, under penalty of law and the stripping of their AP teaching privileges, not to disclose the content of the new sample AP U.S. History exam to anyone.”
Perhaps Coleman’s method of operations with the AP U.S. History exam is more recognizable now since it is one and the same as the method used in stifling public access to the Common Core standards. With the latter, English and Language Arts expert Dr. Sandra Stotsky and mathematician Dr. James Milgram, who were both invited to be members of the Common Core Validation Committee — apparently for little more than to serve as “window dressing” — said they were sworn to secrecy not to reveal discussions at their meetings with the committee. Subsequently, their recommendations regarding the standards were then promptly ignored by Coleman and the other lead writers.
Public access to the Common Core standards was also curtailed through a liaison with the federal government in which states could be enticed into adopting the standards by dangling federal funding and the promise of relief from federal No Child Left Behind restrictions in front of their eyes.
Without much ado, 45 state boards of education, having been strengthened in power over local school boards through years of legislation as well as a useful relationship with the U.S. Department of Education, adopted the unproven, untested standards — sight unseen.
Coleman’s achievement of keeping Common Core from public and media scrutiny is extraordinary when considering that the standards were developed by three private organizations in Washington, D.C.: the National Governors Association (NGA), the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and progressive education company Achieve Inc. All three organizations were privately funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and none of these groups are accountable to parents, teachers, students, or taxpayers.
In addition, there is no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. None of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level. In addition, the Standards Development Work Groups did not include any members who were high school English and mathematics teachers, English professors, scientists, engineers, parents, state legislators, early childhood educators, and state or local school board members.
With his attention now turned to the AP U.S. History exam, Coleman is simply repeating a method that worked well for him with Common Core.
“This is clearly an effort to silence public debate over these heavily politicized and illegitimately nationalized standards,” writes Kurtz. “If the complete sample test was available, the political nature of the new test would become evident. Public scrutiny of the sample test would also expose potential conflicts between the new exam and existing state standards.”
Another deception observed by Kurtz is the College Board’s claim that the highly controlled new framework for AP U.S. History can be adapted according to the preferences of individual states, school districts, and teachers.
Once again, the parallel here is the now predictable pro-Common Core talking point that “the standards are not curriculum.” Supporters of the controversial standards claim teachers and local school districts can choose whichever curriculum they desire to comply with the standards. Of course, if they want their students to pass the Common Core-aligned tests, their best bet is to choose Common Core-aligned textbooks and lesson plans, which means content will be coming from those.
Regarding the AP U.S. History exam, Kurtz says that while it is true that the new AP framework allows teachers to include their own examples, the framework “also insists that the examples must be used to illustrate the themes and concepts behind the official College Board vision.”
Consequently, Kurtz observes:
The upshot is that James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founders are largely left out of the new test, unless they are presented as examples of conflict and identity by class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. The Constitution can be studied as an example of the Colonists’ belief in the superiority of their own culture, for instance. But any teacher who presents a full unit on the principles of the American Constitution taught in the traditional way would be severely disadvantaging his students. So while allowing some minor flexibility on details, the new AP U.S. History framework effectively forces teachers to train their students in a leftist, blame-America-first reading of history, while omitting traditional treatments of our founding principles.
Fortunately, leading the charge against Coleman’s latest deception, the new AP U.S. History exam, is Texas, which comprises about 10 percent of the College Board’s market.
As Kurtz explains, Ken Mercer, a member of the Texas School Board, is attempting to introduce a resolution that would rebuke and reject the new AP U.S. History exam. Mercer is being told, however, that the resolution cannot be introduced until September, when it will be too late.
Considering that if Texas could reject the new AP History exam the entire project could be cast into limbo, Ken Mercer needs to introduce his resolution.
Kurtz urges Texans to demand that Mercer’s resolution be introduced and passed as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the other 49 states should demand similar action.
“The public should also insist that the College Board release its heretofore secret sample AP U.S. History test for public scrutiny and debate,” Kurtz adds. “There is no excuse for withholding this test from the public.”
“The controversy over the AP U.S. History Test is going to transform the national battle over Common Core,” Kurtz told Breitbart News. “The changes to the AP U.S. History Exam, enforced by none other than David Coleman, architect of the Common Core, confirm widespread fears that the Common Core will lead to politicized indoctrination.”
“Up to now, Coleman and his allies have done their best to avoid overtly ideological moves,” he continued. “Now they’ve tipped their hand. The AP controversy is going to energize the anti-Common Core forces and push this battle to a whole new level.”
“The AP controversy will also make it vastly harder for anyone to claim that Common Core is a conservative reform,” Kurtz added. “Battle lines will soon harden and the controversy over K-12 education in America is about to take off.”
According to Education Views, Texans are alerted to contact the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office and urge him to stop the AP U.S. History exam from being implemented this fall. More information can be found here.
Thanks the mass emails from the Texas Home School Coalition and Home School Legal Defense Association, Magnolia City Hall was standing room only at their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night, July 8, 2014. On the meeting agenda was scheduled a public hearing to reinstate a teen curfew ordinance for the city of Magnolia. The city let the ordinance lapse after now holding a public hearing to reinstate it in 2010. So reality the ordinance was inactive. Home school families showed up in droves to let their voices heard. Many adults gave public comments as well as some of their children. In attendance also was Texas HR Steve Toth who opposed the ordinance as well.
Unanimously the room was against the day time curfew. The council asked for a show how hands who was against the night-time curfew as well and the majority raised their hands. The city the voted to let the ordinance die.
I would like to personally say I was well pleased with the council and their generosity in allowing any and all who wanted to speak do so. Magnolia Police Chief, Domingo Ibarra was extremely gracious and showed concern regarding the ordinance as well. MagnoliaCity Administator, Paul Mendes thanked the audience for coming out and for being so well behaved.
The Home School Legal Defense Association is against day-time curfews and outlines why HERE.
There is not a district in the state of Texas not incorporating the progressive/radical transformation of the Common Core agenda. Thanks to lobbying efforts of the tax funded organizations, Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and Texas Association of School Business (TASBO) and a legislature that are completely oblivious to the lobbyist agenda and tactics, Texans are now seeing the transformation in their local school districts. Parents across the state have been screaming about testing, lack of traditional math, no textbooks, no spelling, no cursive, fuzzy math, etc……
With the use of massive roll-out of technology schools are now promoting what they are calling 21 Century Learning or Project Based Learning where students are working more in groups. Individual achievement is becoming a thing of the past. It is all for the collective good. AKA.. MARXISM
I discovered this agenda when I discovered that 875 school districts has purchased the Marxist Curriculum CSCOPE from our Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’s). Our ESC’s created this Marxist product and have continued to lease it to our school districts, yearly. Due to public outcry the ESC’s have now changed the name of the product to TEKS RESOURCE SYSTEM. And the age-old saying goes a rose by any other name is still a rose, and so goes the Marxist product of the Teks Resource System. Our ESC are still peddling it today for a pretty hefty price. Though a state audit has shown that ESC’s are incompetent when it comes to handling taxpayers money.
ESC 2o and along with many others promote 21st Century Learning. If I remember correctly man got to the moon using a BIG CHIEF TABLET. To think there is some new phenomenon that needs to be implemented for students to learn is a bunch of HOG WASH! Do NOT let these EDUCRATS intimidate you with their lingo. You will hear the words, Rigor, Authentic Learning, Critical Thinking (like that is something new), 21st Century Learning Skills, student centered, Project Based Learning, Collaborative work (socialism). They have developed their own lingo of what is now and acceptable way to be properly educated according to powers at be. PLEASE DO NOT BE FOOLED.
On ESC 20’s website you can find a whole page and section about 21st Century Learning. When you run across these words know for sure they are on a path of total transformation, one that is not for the best of the individual student but for the collective good.
Below is a clip from ESC 20’s webpage. I have highlighted the words that should cause every parent to start asking the questions. Not only what you are teaching but how you are teaching my kid?
WARNING: Your children will be online at school more than you like. The dangers they will be exposed to is astronomical.
The ultimate goad of Common core and the whole transformation process is “Centralized Control” and along with this comes data mining. There are numerous online programs that students use at schools that are collecting data on your kids, such as the Khan academy.
Texas has put in place a student data collection. Are parents aware of this?
Sadly, the education system in Texas is no longer about educating children. It is all political and the powers at be are working overtime establishing a progressive/centralized education system throughout the state. During the last legislative session a curriculum used in over 800+ school districts by the name of CSCOPE/TEKS Resource System Curriculum was exposed, not only for its controversial lessons but concerns in regard to their financials. Senator Dan Patrick then requested a state audit and Texas State Auditor John Keel released his report this month. The report was telling of how shaky our Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’s) handle our tax money.
The Texas Education Service Centers (ESC’s) that created CSCOPE which has renamed their product TEKS Resource System were found to be incompetent in handling millions of taxpayers dollars and lacked internal and external financial controls. The auditors were not a able to determine the actual revenue and expenditures of the taxpayer funded organization (ESC’s).
CSCOPE has requested that teachers sign a non-disclosure statement stating they would not release the contents or say anything negative about it or face legal action. Seriously!
Despite the controversy and the state auditors report Texas School Boards continue to show irresponsibility in voting to continue leasing the CSCOPE product and funding the entity (ESC’s) deemed incompetent in their accounting practices.
This past week Grand Prairie ISD’s school board voted unanimously to throw more taxpayer funds at this faulty product and incompetent organization. Public input was given at the beginning of the meeting voicing concern in regards to the curriculum and the financials and those concerns were ignored once again. School Board members no longer represent the people who have put them in office they are brain washed through the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) that is funded with our tax dollars and they have become more of rubber-stampers of the superintendents agenda.
During the Grand Prairie ISD school board member Steve Pryor 
made final comments insinuating that the concerns surrounding CSCOPE are a myth. So let me get this right. The original CSCOPE lessons are removed, the name is changed to re-brand their image, the managing company disbands and regrouped with a new name, the state auditor releases a bad report in regard to the financials surrounding CSCOPE and Mr. Pryor calls it a myth? Seriously?
Mr. Pryor also made a comment that none of Grand Prairie teachers have used any of the controversial material that was in CSCOPE. 1) Mr. Pryor I am sure isn’t in every classroom monitoring what is and isn’t used 2) In light of all the controversy Mr. Pryor deems it acceptable to throw money at it none the less.
Parents and taxpayers once again have got to take control of their local schools boards once again. The rubber stamping taken place is unacceptable and it will not change without the involvement of the grassroots.
The Texas STAAR TEST is riddled with errors and students are failing right and left though they are honor roll students and making good grades through out the school year.
KCENTV.com reported today the following..
Waco ISD Opt Out Student Promoted To Next Grade
Posted: Jun 05, 2014 10:26 PM CST Updated: Jun 05, 2014 10:26 PM CST
kcentv.com – KCEN HD – Waco, Temple, and Killeen
All STAAR tests results are in, but what does the future hold for kids who were opted out of the tests?
Thursday was the last day of the school year for Waco ISD students, and parents who choose to opt their kids out of the STARR tests were anxious to see their child’s final report card.
Kyle and Jennifer Massey have been leading the “opt out” movement in Waco.
The couple opted their 9-year-old son William out of the STAAR tests this year, but they say even though he was given a score of zero, he is still being promoted to the next grade.
However, the Massey’s learned Thursday that one of William’s friends who took the test and failed is now being required to go to summer school.
“In our case, it did not affect William’s academic standing, it did not affect whether or not he was promoted to the next grade, and it was in our view in the best interest of his learning,” Kyle Massey said.
Massey believes this is proof that opting out of the test is a more viable option.
The Texas State Auditor John Keel, released his audit of the Cscope debacle today, June 9, 2014.
His findings are of no surprise to me. How sad that millions of our tax dollars have been mishandled by our Texas Education Service Centers.
Some key points in Mr. Keel’s audit are the following:
- Education Service Centers reported they collected 73.9 million from School districts, private schools, charter schools from Sept 2005 through August 2013.
- Education Service Centers reported a expenditures to be 67.8 million.
- Auditors were not able to verify the total amount that education service centers reported they paid for the development, installation, distribution, and marketing of CSCOPE because some of the education service centers did not separately track CSCOPE-related expenditure transactions
- Some of the Texas Education Service Centers did not separately track their Cscope revenue transactions.
- As a result, auditors were not able to fully answer the audit objective to determine the amount of revenue and expenditures related to the development, installation, distribution, and marketing of CSCOPE.
- Auditors identified deficiencies in the processes used to procure and monitor the CSCOPE contracts.
- The contracts between Region 8-Mount Pleasant and National Education Resources, Inc. from 2006 through 2011 lacked significant elements. (Ratliff Disrict)
- Region 8-Mount Pleasant was unable to provide its 2005 contract for the development and implementation of the curriculum management system because it destroyed all supporting documentation from the 2005-2006 school year based on its records retention schedule. (shocking?)
- Auditors identified deficiencies in Region 8-Mount Pleasant’s procurement of the CSCOPE contracts in effect from 2006 through 2011.
- Auditors were not able to determine the total amount of rebates paid to Region 8-Mount Pleasant or the other education service centers.
You can read more of the auditors report HERE.
FYI… The Education Service Centers have changed the name of CSCOPE to TEKS RESOURCE SYSTEM (TRS) due to the name CSCOPE getting so much bad press. The contents is still the same. Lessons may have been removed but the same MARXIST/Collective philosophy is behind it and your tax dollars are paying for it.
Chilton honor roll students are in summer school because:
1. Texas Legislatures have not thought through the codes for promoting students or they could care less how the codes affect the lives of children and their families. This is because education and the STAAR testing is all about money.
Code 28.0211 Requires school districts to re-mediate every student who fails the STAAR tests in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Did our legislatures factor in students who work hard and make all A’s or all A’s and B’s? What about kids that are doing their best and making passing grades, but because of the undue stress of taking a 4 hour test in a room with the walls covered with white sheets or some other covering fail the STAAR test?
A retest is provided during the school day for 5th and 8th grade students that fail the STAAR. But students in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th grades who fail the STAAR must attend summer school. Why? Is it because the school district only receives government grant money if students attend summer school? Are our children being punished so the school district can make more money?
Chilton elementary school had a banquet for the elementary honor roll students. These students received a metal honoring their achievements. Some of the students can wear their metals to summer school because they failed a STAAR test.
Can you tell me why any parent should send their child to a Texas Public School when nothing the child accomplishes matters? It is only the STAAR Score that matters. The STAAR score trumps every accomplishment during the school year.
Being on the honor roll? Big deal. If you fail the STAAR your honor roll award is not what is on your permanent record. Instead, you will be labeled a failure. You will be in remediation and then in what is erroneously called an accelerated class if the school district decides to promote you.
This is being done so that school districts will receive more Federal money for remediation.
Where are all the politicians who love children and want the best education for them? What a joke.
Note: Homeschool students do not have to take the STAAR test only Texas public school children spend the entire school year being taught how to take the STAAR test. Only Texas public school children on the honor roll have to attend summer school if they fail a STAAR test.
* Please stand with me and fight against this injustice? Encourage parents to contact their senators and representatives as well as SBOE representative.
* Please help evaluated the released STAAR tests to determine if they are valid test? Stand Hartzler has reviewed the 4th and 5th grade math STAAR 2013 tests. There are errors. But kids went to summer school last year and again this year because the TEA assessments department refuses to admit that there are errors on these tests.
* Please help me get the codes changes so that the STAAR scores do not trump all other student accomplishments.
The STAAR test is all that is being taught. Is the test that important? Should one test trump an entire year’s worth of student work?
Know that school districts are designing their own remediation and reassessment for grades 3, 4, 6, and 7. Thus. there is no standard set for remediation or reassessment. I do not see any length of time for remediation. Maybe it is listed in another code.
I have to tell parents of a 4th grade honor roll students that the state of Texas has created a code requiring that their child must attend summer school.I have to tell these parents that it doesn’t matter how hare their child works, the STAAR test is more important than everything she has done during the school year.
Will it matter if there are errors found in the 4th grade STAAR math test? It appears that no one is overly concerned about this. Why?
If any of you have any suggestion as to how to change this injustice, let me know. I’ve contacted every source that I know about. It seems that our legislatures didn’t care enough about the children when they dreamed up a code that forces outstanding scholastic achievers to go to summer school because they failed a STAAR test.
Nothing, absolutely nothing positive comes from the STAAR testing. NOTHING!
If you think the STAAR tests are affecting what is being taught, you are 100% correct. Teachers are teaching to the test. But, they have no clue what is on the test. If you think the TEKS are the big clue to the STAAR content, think again.
Sincerely,
Janice VanCleave
1-254-896-2080
Janice VanCleave
http://scienceprojectideasforkids.com
Charlie Riley, candidate for Montgomery County Commissioner signed off on the progressive philosophy of education, Common Core while serving on the Magnolia ISD School Board. Though Common Core has not been officially adopted by the Texas Legislature, Common Core and it’s philosophy have made its way into school districts across the stae have seen this and fought it in the last legislature with Cscope.
Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) which is funded with taxpayer dollars through your local school districts have adopted the same common core philosophy under the name “Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas“. Magnolia ISD’s School Board on April 9,2012 School Board meeting signed onto TASA’S NEW VISION.
Why would Charlie Riley, Cecil Bell, Deborah Rose Miller, Chuck Adcox, Billy Thompson, Steve Crews sign off on to the Common Core progressive philosophy?
In 2013 Superintendents and Administrators across the state made a trip to California to hear Progressive Educator Linda Darling Hammond speak on Common Core.
In running for school board for my district, Magnolia ISD where I have resided for the last 21 years it has become so apparent that the school board does not welcome outside opinions or viewpoints. If your not within their “circle of trust” they will put out all stops in stopping a fair election. The President of the School Board, Deboarah Rose Miller is sporting signs on her car for my opponent as well as hosting meet and greets at her home. It has been reported back to me that the superintendent made his rounds to the local schools asking that voter cards be placed in all the teachers boxes calling for massive voter turnout in support of opponent. Are they worried about something? What could it possibly be?
The Magnolia School Board giving the taxpayers “Taxation without Representation”.
The Magnolia ISD School Board is made of up 7 members. Three of the members are appointed within the ranks and the others have ran unopposed races with low voter turnout.
Gary Blizzard was appointed in 2012 with the absence of Cecil Bell Jr who presently serves in the Texas House.
Chuck Adcox was appointed in 2012 with the absence of Glenn Addison.
Kristi Baker was appointed August 2013 replacing Brent O’Neal (My opponent)
Charlie Riley ran unopposed in 2008 with 487 Votes.
Deborah Rose Miller ran unopposed in 2010 with 436 Votes
Steve Crews ran unopposed in 2010 with 439 Votes
Billy Thompson won in 2006 with 359 votes
If you as a taxpayer within the Magnolia ISD School District want someone that is accountable to you and not a rubber stamper for the administration someone that cares and loves your children calling for 100% transparency please vote for Ginger Russell for School Board.
Voting Day is Saturday May 10th Locations
Texas Transvestite Teacher Confuses 5th Grade Students at Lumberton ISD – Suspended after Outrage
by David Bellow
Texas Conservative Republican News
The small, predominantly Christian community of Lumberton, TX is once again about to hit the national scene. The Lumberton Independent School has suspended a transvestite teacher. There will be a School Board meeting this Thursday night at 7pm to determine whether or not to fire the man. Men who want to dress up as women are not a protected class under the Constitution or state law and therefore the teacher can be fired. Especially in schools, there is broad authority to make decisions based on what the people of the community wants and believes is in the best interest of the vulnerable students of the school district. I suspect the man will try to sue and we will have a trial with national implications.
Some believe that the School Board will also discuss who hired him in the first place and thought it was ok for him to wear a dress in front of 10 year olds who were so distracted that they could not take their tests. Considering that this is not the first major problem with administrative decisions, some believe the Superintendent John Valastro’s time as the Superintendent will be coming to an end soon. In recent years, I have written several articles regarding Lumberton ISD issues, from vulgar school plays with cursing, to CSCOPE, to students wearing Muslim Burqas, to liberal teachers wearing vote Obama shirts and telling students not to watch Fox News. John Griffing’s WND story on the Burqa issue led to national attention and even helped push out CSCOPE curriculum on a statewide level (although it is still around).
Lumberton is a great community and has a great educational environment compared to other public schools. I live here and I personally hate to see the school getting so much negative attention because it is not a reflection of the majority of the teachers and administration. Unfortunately, in order to fix problems and make sure they do not happen again, you have to expose the problems. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it.
I first heard about the issue when my youngest brother came home and told me about the kids talking about a male substitute teacher that was in a different class. This teacher was signing his name as Mrs. I thought that was strange, but I did not realize the extent of what was going on until I heard Chip Darby talking about the issue on freedom 1300. Apparently there was a male teacher wearing a dress and makeup at the Lumberton Intermediate School.
The teacher’s name is Laura Jane Klug (born Kurt Klug). I looked him up on Facebookand what I found was an emotionally disturbed and confused older man. He has not always wanted to be a woman. According to a note he posted on his Facebook page on July 7th, 2011 titled “How Much More Can I Take?” Kurt Klug was emotionally distraught and seemingly ready to give in with his life because of the pain of his female wife leaving him. The pain and distraught of his wife leaving him must have driven him to decide that he wanted to become a woman. From 2011 until now, Kurt changed his name to Laura Jane Klug and started dressing up like a woman and acting like a woman. He has joined many lesbian, gay and transgender pages on Facebook. Oh, and he also likes Texas Politician Dan Branch’s page.
Let me get one thing straight, I do not hate this man, nor am I angry at him. I feel bad for him. He was so hurt and emotionally distraught that he was driven to wanting a radical change. He seems like he was and maybe still is a Christian, but he is certainly hurting and has lost his way. We all have issues and this is his issue.
That being said, a school house with young, impressionable, easily distracted and easily confused children is not the place for this man to be. The school has very strict dress codes and boys cannot even have long hair. The environment is controlled to minimize distractions so that the students can learn. Like it or not, a transvestite is a distraction. Not only that, he frightened and confused many students who then went home to their parents who had to have age inappropriate conversations with their children.
Roger Beard, whose son was in the class Klug was subbing, is an outspoken parent who talked to the local Channel 12 News about this issue. He said what concerns him is the distraction he believes a transgender teacher poses to ten and eleven year old children.
“If it does affect my child and his ability to learn or if it causes questions that I don’t feel are appropriate then undoubtedly there’s an issue with having somebody transgender, transsexual or transvestite, to be teaching that age group,” Beard said.
Heli Jones Wells also had a child in the class and she posted this comment on Facebook about the situation, “I did have to explain to my daughter what transgender was last Thursday afternoon because it was her home room class he was in. I was none to happy to venture down that road with my 11 year old. Judge? No. But do I have reservations about WHY this person wants to be in our schools for $60 a day, you better believe it.”
I wanted to hear what others in Lumberton had to say, that is when I took to Facebook to see what I could find out from friends who work at or have students at the Intermediate School.
The response I got was overwhelming.
Below are screenshots of what I posted on Facebook, and some of the responses that I got:
3.26.14 — Warning from Cindy Sharretts:
NATIONAL PTA CONVENTION IN AUSTIN, TEXAS – JUNE 19 – 22, 2014 – COMMON CORE FOCUSED
You might pass the word across the country, about the upcoming National PTA Convention in Austin, Texas. I imagine you know the PTA is a highly political arm of Government Education bureaucracy & “friends.” The national and state PTA conventions are where new and more targeted campaigns are sent forth into local school communities. Those against CC who are able to attend may observe next plans, and may have opportunity to speak with others about the negatives of CC. People should also be looking for their upcoming State PTA conventions for the same reasons.
National PTA Convention, June 19-22: http://www.pta.org/about/content.cfm?ItemNumber=3889&navItemNumber=3893
Early Bird Registration Rates through March 31st
Workshops listed: http://www.pta.org/about/content.cfm?ItemNumber=4009
Workshop Examples:
303: Communicating About Common Core and PTA
The Common Core ‘train’ has left the station, and is arriving soon at your PTA. This workshop will provide the tools that will help your unit anticipate and respond to the questions about Common Core and PTA. There is already a degree of controversy and debate surrounding Common Core, particularly PTA’s support of this major national initiative. Presented by National PTA’s Communications and Governmental Relations Committees, this interactive session will focus on developing a strong communications plan with key messages and tactics so your local unit can discuss Common Core effectively.
201: The 2014 National PTA Public Policy Agenda
Join National PTA Legislative Committee and Government Affairs staff to learn about the development of the 2014 Public Policy Agenda, which highlights priorities in these policy areas:
- General education
- Special education
- Early Childhood Education
- Child Health and Nutrition
- Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- School Safety
A good traditional education based on American Exceptionalism and absolute-truth is being replaced. The use of a more collectivist classroom setting are being implemented with the intent to create more diversity, equity and globalization. These goals are being accomplished with the use of technology and NEW teaching styles in the classroom. It is being said now that a teacher will no longer be a “SAGE on the STAGE” but she/he would work alongside their students being more of their friend in facilitating the inquiry of knowledge.
With the No Child Left Behind Act and Texas’s Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 you can expect your child’s education to drastically change compared to how we were taught as a student. Education reform in being rolled out across Texas at a rapid pace unbeknownst to many parents and taxpayers.
The Texas Education Agency & Texas Eduction Service Centers through the use of federal grant money and the Obama’s stimulus package along with policy changes have been implementing the reform from 2006. Texas teachers now are graded on key areas as to their expertise and implementation of technology in the classroom, Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology.
You can learn about how your child’s classroom is being drastically changed what is expected of our teachers as well as how they are graded by viewing the following document titled the
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The new teaching/learning style has taken on many different names over the years. Once referred to as Outcome based education is now called 21 Century learning, Project Based Learning, Student Driven learning,… All these styles are based on the collective. Below is a comparison chart of a Traditional Classroom and what Texas school districts are implementing, Project Based Learning.
by MERRILL HOPE 14 Mar 2014, 4:36 AM
AUSTIN, TEXAS–TAMSA (Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment) is the mom-pack posing as the grassroots on the Texas education advocacy front that Breitbart Texas reported flew under the radar when working with elected officials Representative Jimmy Don Aycock (R-Killeen) and State Board of Education Vice Chair Thomas Ratliff on HB 5. Although TAMSA identifies itself as a non-partisan organization, campaign and other financial contributions made by TAMSA leadership and core members tells a story that supports a very progressive educational agenda in Texas.
In public records housed on the Texas Tribune’s Texas Campaign Finance Database 2000-14, a non-grassroots public education picture emerges from 2012-13 where TAMSA–the darlings of HB5–supported a variety of Democratic and progressive causes in Texas. Among the cash recipients were Battleground Texas, Wendy Davis, and Ratliff, a paid Microsoft lobbyist. Microsoft is neck deep in the implementation of 21st Century learning through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Texas’ 21st Century learning and College and Career Readiness Standards are all a part of the federal agenda, the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
TAMSA president Dineen Majcher contributed a diminutive $300 to Texas Parent PAC, however, the records show that the PAC’s top contributors also included TAMSA agitator-at-large Susan Kellner and former Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff, who sits on the Parents for Public Schools advisory board with Linda Darling-Hammond, a key education policy ideologue and influencer behind both the controversial Common Core State and CSCOPE.
Furthermore, Texas Parent PAC is an organization that endorses Save Texas Schools and whose advisory committee chairman Allen Weeks was featured on the “Reclaiming the Promise through Community Schools” SXSWedu 2014 panel with Randi Weingarten, president of the largest and most powerful teacher’s union in the United States — the American Federation of Teachers.
Breitbart Texas was there when Weingarten told attendees on March 3, 2014 that she had been in Austin since January with Weeks to work on a “community schools strategy.” This is the same strategy Breitbart Texas recently reported on that New York Governor Cuomoexecutive ordered into aligning education, health and social services into the one convenient hub–the public school.
At the conference, Weeks made no mention about his ties to Save Texas Schools. He was listed as executive director of Austin Voices for Education and Youth. However, to donate online to Save Texas Schools, the check needs to be made out to Austin Voices for Education and Youth where it also states that Austin Voices for Education and Youth is the nonprofit organization that is the fiscal sponsor for Save Texas Schools. Reclaiming the Promise is AFT initiative lead by Weingarten.
Also in the 2012-13 records, TAMSA Treasurer Laura Yeager contributed to the most likely Democratic candidates and groups to champion Fed Led Ed right into Texas. Shedonated to the campaigns of Wendy R. Davis for Governor, Inc.; Battleground Texas and the Leticia Van Putte for Lieutenant Governor Campaign Committee.
TAMSA mouth piece Kellner, who is the former Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees, along with husband Larry Kellner, former chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Airlines, made generous contributions to Democratic causes, candidates and legislators in Texas according to the online records.
The Kellners, however, landed on the top recipients list, contributing a combined total of $40,000 to Texans for Joe Straus, straddling the 2012-13 period at $10,000 per contribution. In 2012, they also ranked among the top contributors to SBOE Vice Chair Thomas Ratliff, flanked by the Texas State Teachers Association PAC and Charles Butt, HEB grocery chain magnate. Among their 2013 contributions listed, they plunked down $20,000 to the Harris County based Citizens for School Readiness, a 527 political organization, busy pushing the federal pre-kindergarten program in a CATO Institutereport posted by EAG News.
Thomas Ratliff has been tagged a controversial figure because of questions that have arisen about his lobbyist status and the legitimacy for him to serve on the Texas State Board of Education. Although the Texas Education Code (Title 2. Public Education, Subtitle B, Section 7.103) states in as eligibility for membership that “a person who is required to register as a lobbyist under Chapter 305, Government Code, by virtue of the person’s activities for compensation in or on behalf of a profession, business, or association related to the operation of the board, may not serve as a member of the board or act as the general counsel to the board,” Ratliff continues to sit on the Texas State Board of Education despite a 2011 opinion rendered on the matter from the Texas Attorney General’s office.
Also, the son of the former Lieutenant Governor, Ratliff’s top contributors over the same period have been Butt, the Kellners, and Chris Huckabee, appointed to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board by Governor Rick Perry.
The dollars on record do not lie. They tell the story of a well-organized machine and a lot of disconcerting ties that may not reflect Texas values after all.
Currently, TAMSA lists among their latest plank-of-action opting out of the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) aligned STAAR testing but not necessarily in the grassroots spirit of “teaching to the test.” Rather, their goal is to replace the Texas exams with the “nationally recognized tests” a.k.a. the Common Core assessments in grades 3-8. It’s right on their website. They are who Thomas Ratliff praised as the “real grassroots” at SXSWedu 2014.
Original records source credited is the Texas Ethics Commission.
Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom
AUSTIN, TEXAS–Every year, the education and technology communities converge in Austin for the SXSWedu conference. It is a four day series of speakers and seminars that their website calls “the platform for education’s most energetic and innovative leaders from all backgrounds of the learning landscape including teachers, administrators, university professors, business and policy leaders.”
Breitbart Texas was at this year’s conference, March 3-6 to report back on some of the technocrats and education reformers. We went into sessions where the achievement gap, equity/educational equality/equalization, social and emotional learning, accountability, big data, advocacy, policy, and STEM were among the revolving themes of the day.
Leading the pack of prominent progressives were education historian Diane Ravitch; architect of the Common Core ELA standards and College Board president David Coleman; and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten. PBS, Teach for America, and CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) sent their people.
Former Superintendent of Indiana and Florida schools Tony Bennett was also on hand to address the pros and cons of the Common Core with former Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott. Other highlighted Texans included Thomas Ratliff (Vice Chairman of the State Board of Education); Representative Jimmie Don Aycock, and Senator Wendy Davis, the Democratic challenger to Republican favorite Greg Abbott, currently the Texas Attorney General. Local educrats featured were UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, UT Austin Ph.D. David Yeager, Austin Community College president Richard Rhodes and Austin ISD superintendent Meria Carstarphen.
SXSWedu 2014 sponsors included all the familiar names of Fed Led Ed — Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Dell, Pearson and the Pearson Foundation, the College Board, Scholastic, Amplify, inBloom, Samsung, McGraw Hill Education, Cengage Learning, connectedu, Lumina Foundation, Xerox, among others. Local sponsors included Educate Texas, a public-private initiative of Communities Foundation of Texas; University of Texas at Austin; and the Texas Tribune. TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) and the Austin Chamber of Commerce were listed as event supporters.
SXSW, which is short for South by Southwest is a series of events held in Austin’s downtown. It kicked off with SXSWedu 2014, March 3-6, and then continues through March 16 with music, film and interactive festivals.
Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom
I never thought I would be doing what I am doing today and that is fighting for the rights of children in Texas to have a good education. I was fortunate enough to home school my girls which afforded us the ability to travel. Homeschooling was a personal decision for my husband and I and realize some families are not able to do so. Both my girls went on to finish college and plan on home schooling their children. I believe I can say that home schooling for our family was a huge success. I know many home school families and their children are and have been very successful with their education.
Due to the discovery of a hidden progressive/constructionist curriculum called Cscope in Texas schools, has inspired me to get more involved in educational issues rather public or home school.
Texas State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff obviously thinks a Home School mom is not capable of running for School Board which is absurd.
His behavior is an embarrassment for the state of Texas and totally unethical. Texas can do better!
Texas State Board of Education Member
Thomas Ratliff
Matt Rinaldi
Bennett Ratliff
Texas HD #115, what a great victory it was! Moderate incumbent Bennet Ratliff was defeated by conservative Matt Rinaldi. Congrats Matt!
Bennett is the son of former Lt. Gov Bill Ratliff and brother to “Bully” State Board education member Thomas Ratliff. All the Ratliffs have had their within the policies of Texas Education.
The following facebook post verify’s Bennett Ratliff is not a conservative.
One “Ratliff” down and one to go. Our next job will be Thomas Ratliff removed from the SBOE. Grassroots activist are working to remove the Microsoft lobbyist due to due being a lobbyist and serving on the SBOE is against the law. Thomas has no respect for the law and will not step down. His term is up in 2017 and I can assure him we will have someone to replace him.
Today I found the following tweet by Thomas Ratliff. I find his tweet to show such unethical behavior for an elected official. But I would like to say to Thomas, it is so!
Thomas Ratliff
