BY DONNA GARNER
Are Texans Funding our own demise using our children to do it?
By Donna Garner
The following data shows that 7 Texas school districts (chosen at random out of 1,032) have sent TASA and TASB more than $1.2 Million of local taxpayers’ dollars over 17 calendar months (Texas Association of School Administrators/Texas Association of School Boards).
TASA says its iCLOUD curriculum is free; but in actuality, we taxpayers have footed the bill for this “free” curriculum. (Please read “Shark Attack…Just When We Thought It Was Safe…TASA iCLOUD” posted at the bottom of this page.)
*Local taxpayers’ dollars sent to Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) from 9/1/11 through 1/31/13 for the following 7 school districts:
|
NAME OF SCHOOL DISTRICT |
LOCAL TAXPAYERS’ DOLLARS SENT TO TASA AND TASB |
| Coppell ISD | $125,959 |
| Cypress-Fairbanks ISD | $38,636 |
| Decatur ISD | $39,713 |
| Judson ISD | $72,630 |
| Irving ISD | $923,013 |
| Marlin ISD | $15,186 |
| Willis ISD | $1,038 |
| TOTAL EXPENDITURES | $1,216,124 |
*Thanks to Tom Fabry for compiling this TASA/TASB data obtained through Public Information Requests by Texas citizens –
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“Shark Attack…Just When We Thought It Was Safe…TASA iCloud”
by Donna Garner
3.18.13
At a time when we Texas grassroots citizens have finally been able to uncover CSCOPE to show what a disastrous impact it is having on our Texas school children, and the Texas Legislature is on the cusp of passing legislation that will put CSCOPE under the purview of the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education, we learn of yet another “shark attack.”
TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators, affiliated with the American Association of School Administrators) announced recently that it is now offering free iCloud course content in English / Language Arts / Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Math (3.5.13 – http://www.tasanet.org/association-notes/2013/03/05/tasa-joins-itunes-u-offering-free-course-content-to-transform-texas-tea ).
This TASA iCloud curriculum, the same as the CSCOPE curriculum, has not undergone the public scrutiny of the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education. It is in those SBOE public hearings that evaluators document factual errors, the SBOE members create a list of errors that must be corrected, and publishers are fined for any errors they allow into the textbooks.
TASA iCloud curriculum has never been evaluated through the public adoption process, and the chances are very high that the curriculum found in its iCloud lessons will be similar to the Type #2 indoctrination found in the CSCOPE lessons. (To see the definitions of Type #1 and Type #2, please go to:http://nocompromisepac.ning.com/profiles/blogs/type-1-and-type-2-two-completely-different-philosophies-of?xg_source=activity ).
How can I make such an assertion?
FACT #1:
On Feb. 21-23, 2013, members of Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA – affiliated with the American Association of School Administrators) went to Los Angeles to the national conference where they were indoctrinated by Key Note Speaker Linda Darling-Hammond into the Common Core Standards – (http://www.tasanet.org/aasa-national-conference-on-education) and (http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=27246 ).
Linda Darling-Hammond is closely linked to Obama, Bill Ayers, and Arne Duncan – all of whom are behind Common Core Standards which is the takeover of the public schools by the federal government. Some 45 states (and D. C.) have committed to the Common Core Standards Initiative which will force local schools to adopt national standards, national curriculum, national assessments, national teacher evaluations, and a national database with personally intrusive information to be shared with federal agencies. Texas is one of the few states that has said “No” to Common Core Standards.
What organizations have led the way to try to get rid of the “measuring stick” of the Type #1 STAAR/End-of-Course tests? TASA and TASB…
Without the measuring stick used at the end of each school year/course, how will we in the public be able to prove that our school students have been “pulled up” to Type #1 (new TEKS and new STAAR/EOC’s) rather than “dumbed down” by Type #2?
If the Texas Legislature does away with the New Plan to require students in Grades 3 – 11 to take the Type #1 STAAR/EOC’s to show they have gained the pre-requisite skills necessary to be successful in the next grade level/course, how will parents and the public ever know whether TASA iCLOUD, regular public schools, charter schools, CSCOPE, Turkish Gulen Harmony Charter Schools, dual-credit courses, Texas Virtual Academy, online learning, Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate programs, Web 2.0 Tools, and Safari Montage are actually moving our school children into Type #1?
One of my main objections to Rep. Aycock’s bill (HB 5 –http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB5 ) and to Sen. Dan Patrick’s bill (SB 3 – http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=SB3 ), among other egregious changes, is that the number of end-of-course tests that all students will have to pass is being dumbed down. As an experienced Texas public school teacher, I can almost guarantee that any grade level or course that does not hold both teachers and students accountable on the new Type #1 STAAR/EOC’s will mean that those teachers will keep right on teaching their same Type #2 curriculum units.
It seems that two of the EOC tests being dropped for graduation are in World History and World Geography. Those are the two courses in which the world’s major religions are taught. It is in those two courses that the most Type #2 indoctrination is occurring right now through the pro-Muslim/anti-Christian, anti-Judeo lessons that are in CSCOPE and most likely in TASA’s iCloud lessons. Without the new Type #1 STAAR/EOC’s, particularly in World History and World Geography, how will we ever prove that our Texas students are being taught Type #1 instead of Type #2?
To prove how important those STAAR/EOC’s at the end of each grade level/course really are, how did the public discover that CSCOPE students did very poorly on the STAAR/EOC tests
(2011-12 school year)? High-school business teacher E. W. Burt and his students documented this by comparing the CSCOPE schools to the grade level/course STAAR/EOC test results (3.18.13 — “CSCOPE Schools Do Much Worse on STAAR/EOC’s” by E. W. Burt — http://nocompromisepac.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cscope-students-do-much-worse-on-staar-eoc-tests-by-e-w-burt-3-18?xg_source=activity ).
A similar result was seen in Irving ISD. Please read: “CSCOPE: Irving ISD Did Poorly on STAAR/EOC Tests – What If Lost Measuring Stick?” by Donna Garner –http://educationviews.org/cscope-irving-isd-staareocs-what-if-we-lost-measuring-stick/
FACT #2:
To join TASA a person must have a Texas administrator’s certificate and must serve as an administrator in public/county/private/college/university or teach ed-prep courses.
The more the person makes in salary, the higher the membership dues (four tenths of one percent of a member’s gross annual salary). The higher the membership dues, the more local taxpayers’ have to pay to fund these administrators’ dues, conferences, and conventions (http://www.tasanet.org/about-tasa/constitution-bylaws ).
TASA and its “joined-at-the-hip organization” TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) use our tax dollars to hire lobbyists to go to Austin to lobby us for higher school taxes. School districts also use our tax dollars to pay for school board members’ TASB expenses. In essence, we taxpayers are paying to lobby ourselves!
Why should TASA/TASB live off our tax dollars? Classroom teachers have to pay for their own teacher organization dues and conventions if they choose to participate. If administrators and school board members want to join TASA/TASB, that should be entirely up to them.
Please ask your Texas Legislators to pass a bill during this legislative session that requires public school administrators and school boards to participate (if they so choose) in TASA/TASB by using their own personal dollars and not by using our taxpayers’ dollars.
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3.10.13 – UPDATED LIST OF ANTI-CSCOPE RESOURCES –
2.20.13 – UPDATED LIST OF ANTI-COMMON CORE STANDARDS RESOURCES –
