FTF: Hey, Parents! The CCSS Roundup is Coming for You!

We know the CCSS Machine has set its sights on our kids. I’ve shared with you (as have others) how parents have been targeted as well. However, did you know there’s one group dead set of creating enough pressure to influence parents TOWARDS radical education reform?!

The Rodeo Begins:

Meet AEI (American Enterprise Institute). Website: www.aei.org

According to their ‘about us’ page the Institute is a non partisan, not-for-profit, private group of folks interested in spreading liberty. Sounds great, right?! Well, AEI isn’t telling you everything. At least, not on their ‘about’ page. Looking at their academic advisory members as well as the board of directors, you’ll be able to begin to see that several pro CCSS schools, groups, and businesses are in positions of influence.

Searching their entire website with the phrase “Common Core Standards”, I was able to find this ‘cow’, “CC Meets Education Reform”. Published in 2013. This seemingly ‘liberty’ minded group sounds more liberal than free. Read this excerpt, “as panelists concluded at an AEI research conference on Monday, the state-led initiative will face an uncertain future as it intersects with additional efforts to improve schooling, such as teacher accountability policies and charter schooling. AEI’s Mike McShane began by explaining the numerous complications associated with implementing national initiatives such as the Common Core” Yes, they are steering us wrong with that whopper. We KNOW CCSS isn’t now, nor was it EVER, state led! See the rest of the article this quote came from as well as all the articles from the symposium where all this was discussed. See: http://www.aei.org/events/common-core-meets-the-reform-agenda/

A Cash Cow:

Knowing how much the Gates Foundation is a part of the CCSS Machine, we don’t have to look far into AEI’s funding to find the cash cow. Gates’ group became bullish on AEI quite a few years back. According to the GF Grants database, GF has granted AEI money on a consistent basis since before 2009. The descriptions of the grants reads more like the ‘livestock for sale’ announcements in the local farming news.

See the screen shot below:

So Where are the Parents?

If you enlarged the above screen shot, you’ll notice no where did you see ‘parents’. However, did you notice the amount of influence to be given? More than likely, big bucks where thrown about (think a cow pattie throwing contest) to include parents. Why? According to one AEI writer penned this, “Families are the primary clients of public schools, but they are one of many groups that have a say in how schools actually operate. In all the technocratic fervor around school reform, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that public schools are democratically controlled. School boards, mayors, local referenda, and even public opinion shape the way schools operate.” Excuse me, what?? Have we, the opposed to CCSS, not seen enough evidence to support that schools are not as ‘democratic’ as they should be?! Have we not seen enough parents arrested, pestered, and run out like cattle from schools? Yet, we’re considered ‘clients’?? Give me a branding iron, please!

Watch Out, Electric Fence Up Ahead!

The above quote was from a December 2014 publication titled “Turning Lighting into Electricity: Organizing Parents for Education Reform” by Andrew P. Kelly. Mr. Kelly’s background ties him to NSF (National Science Foundation) which is into the CCSS/STEM roundup big time. Other CCSS ties connect him to Berkeley where he was able to hone collective bargaining in education skills. See all the rest of his bio:

 http://www.aei.org/author/andrew-p-kelly/

Key points from the report on parents as reformers include:

Collective action in our communities

How implementation of standards actually increases parental power

Choosing who gets to select the agenda the parents are to follow

How to use parent power to influence legislative steps toward implementation

NY’s involvment with InBloom

Jindal and CCSS

Also of a Worthy Cow Poke:
The groups Kelly uses as successes, be sure to look at each of them and see how/if they are CCSS tied. (for example, he cites Students First in the first few pages of the publication.) SF is tied to CCSS. See this article by the “American Thinker”,

 http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/03/suspect_common_core_standards_linked_to_studentsfirst_former_board_members.html

Or you may like to read any of the 54 CCSS policy briefs,  blogs, etc. that SF has on their website: https://www.studentsfirst.org/

The Document in full: Kelly_Turning-Lightning-Into-Electricity

Final Round Up:

I have a message on behalf of the parents out there who are opposed to being used, courted, or otherwise engaged in efforts to support CCSS as an educational reform we didn’t ask for, vote for, or see come into our lives legally (meaning honoring the Constitution).