Tech Thursday: STEM/CCSS Push, Making it American?

For this “Tech Thursday”, I’d like to share with you fellow anti CCSS Warriors, how STEM (also tied to Common Core) is pushing more and more for “American Made”.

Is STEM really tied to CCSS? Absolutely! In the recent past I shared with you how the STEM Act of 2015 is tied to it, as I have repeatedly in other past articles.

If we are to fight EVERYTHING about CCSS, we MUST include STEM. We MUST acknowledge CCSS is more than just ‘standards’,  it includes “Career Tech Education”, “College and Career Readiness”, “STEM”, “Career Pathways”, “Career Clusters”, and more.

The D.C. Push:

Federal level education efforts and the legislation created to support those efforts is nothing new. It is however, against the U.S. Constitution! The power to create education reform is reserved, per the U.S. Constitution, for the states. ‘State sovereignty’ is the phrase used.

In my previous article revealing the PCAST report given to the U.S. President as efforts to be taken via a federal level, made embedding STEM into Common Core State Standards! Since that 2010 Report, millions of dollars have been spent, as well as millions of fallacies have been spun about American education. Sadly, those efforts and the resulting pieces of legislation aren’t slowing down anytime soon.

To read the article about the STEM Act, which will also give you the PCAST Report article,
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/10/21/wybi-tying-stem-to-ccss-again/

So, what’s some of the latest dribble D.C. is spewing? I’m so glad you’re curious! Below is a screen shot from Twitter. The event causing the ‘tweet’? Read on, Warriors!

If you noticed one of the hash tags above, it says “#MakeItInAmerica”. What is “Make It in America”? It’s tied to the Export-Import Re-authorization. In a nutshell, another U.S. elected official (Bryan Higgins of NY) announced yesterday (10/28/15) that the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to re-authorize the Export-Import Bank. What does this mean for education? Per Rep. Higgins, “The Export-Import Bank levels the playing field, allowing for American businesses and workers to remain internationally competitive.”

Can you tell where this is going? How many times have we heard from the CCSS Machine that our students need ’21st century skills for 21st century jobs’, or that ‘to be globally competitive’, and so on? ‘Businesses need skilled workers’, as well. That too, is another yarn the CCSS Machine has spun. It helps support all the P3 (public, private partnerships) meddling in education. I know you’ve noticed it.

To see Rep. Higgins’ full statement, http://higgins.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/higgins-announces-house-passage-of-bill-reauthorizing-the-export-import
To find out all the different groups a positive export-import bank behooves, see:
http://www.exim.gov/authority-has-lapsed/
Anti CCSS/STEM takeaway point, the more positive the relationship, the more jobs. The more jobs, the more educational reform we will continue to be subject to!
(*Also worth noting, if you’d like to see all the supporters involved in this #MakeItInAmerica campaign, check out the Twitter feed. You can see all kinds of tweets about tying education to jobs. This particular hashtag is for the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives)

 

If you are interested in hearing the House Democrats hearing on HOW to “Make It In America”, (be sure to use the ‘show more’ feature on You Tube, you can see what topics and which members of Congress will be addressing those topics) Education is certainly among them.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5of10G2kDs&w=560&h=315]

 

 

 

In case the ‘show more’ feature isn’t working, here is a screen shot to show  you which members spoke:

Rep. Higgins’ announcement said there was bipartisan support in the House. So what did the Republicans say or do toward ‘Make It in America’? There are at least 3 media reports from 2014 which state the House Republicans blocked the bill. (‘Huffington Post’, ‘Daily KOS’, and ‘Our Future’. Google it, you should see those 3 on the first search results page) As far as 2015’s stance, see the Congressional Record, https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2015/9/29/house-section/article/h6700-4

 
Bring on the STEM, CCSS, Please:

As you know, if you’ve read my blog long enough that I normally do not cover the political ups/downs in DC EXCEPT when it deals directly with CCSS/CTE and all the other names it hides behind. So far, you’ve gotten a pretty good idea where the Congress is taking aligned education, but, as a Warrior Against the Core, you want to know where the CCSS/STEM I’ve referred to so far is actually showing up.

It will continue to show up in the appropriations (money). It will continue to surface wherever there are conversations about ‘closing the skills gap’ or ‘getting more businesses in education’. It will continue to be thrust upon our states, schools, and everyone in education participating in Career Tech Education/Career Clusters/Career Pathways.

To prove this, consider the evidence I showed you when I wrote about the STEM Affinity Network, where Race to the Top funds were devoted to STEM education/careers. There I showed you how STEM was tucked away in the state levels of education using federal money! If you haven’t read it, it is, indeed an eye opener. See: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/12/02/wybi-wednesday-rttt-stem-ed-waivers-and-more/

Need more CCSS/STEM evidence? Here’s an entire set of my articles with embedded documents and links (this was previously published in my “Recap Special”; the entire article: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/09/30/special-wybi-ccss-recaps/)

“CCR/CTE/CCSS/STEM for all educational choices:
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/02/11/wybi-jhuy/
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/02/18/wybiupclosewithnsf/
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/03/25/wybi-job-development-grants-and-ccss/
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/04/15/wybi-whats-in-a-word/
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/05/27/wybi-stem-to-steam-ties-to-common-core-pt-1/“

 

 

The 2015 Fed Budget:

Go back and look at the articles I wrote in Dec. 2014 about the (then) upcoming Federal Budget. There you can see exactly where our tax dollars were being funneled. A huge chunk went to the CCS Machine (which includes STEM) Use it as a tool to hone in on your state’s CCSS/STEM expenses. You should see CCR (college/career readiness), CTE (career tech education) or it might be CP (Career Pathways) or CC (Career Clusters). Look for a line by line state budget first, then access a local school board or district’s budget and look at the line by line figures. You should see a distinct pattern of where these funds are going. Make note of how many involve activities including the community (will encompass after school enrichments, camps, field trips, etc.)

To show you what I mean, see the excerpt below from the Part 1 of my “Fed Budget” articles:

“Where our taxes are going to help support the CCSS Machine:
$300 million for a new Race to the Top (student longitudinal data system on a state-wide platform); $14.4 billion for Title One College/Career Readiness; $1.1 billion for those 21st Century Community Learning Centers (think cradle to grave agenda); $100 million for “Promise Neighborhoods” (cradle to career initiative); $70 million for Statewide Longitudinal Student Data System; $200 million for ConnectED (trains teachers to be CCSS and college/career readiness aligned, assessments, digital aspects, and more in the classroom); $5 billion for incentives (RESPECT) teachers who’ve completed College/Career Readiness training, building like-minded network; $1.3 billion in mandatory preK for everyone; $165 million for “Investment in Innovation” (i3) which will use a best-practices approach to education while affording the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Education a whopping $49.5 million to transform technology; $150 million to redesign high schools so they become college/career ready centers; $170 million for STEM revitalizing (of that, $110 million goes to LEAs to create a STEM network; $40 million to create a teacher STEM Pathway, $20 million to create a National STEM Teacher Corps;$1.1 billion to reauthorize the Perkins Act (means even more Career Tech Ed that’s aligned to CCSS).”

To get the entire article, https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/12/12/fom-friday-2015-fed-ed-budget/
To access Part 2: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/12/13/sic-em-saturday-more-fed-budget-watch/

Oh. one last STEM figure for you: $3 billion plus for 2016. See the President’s pdf:
stem_fact_sheet_2016_budget_0

As we’ve seen in D.C. before, I’m sure, once again anti CCSS Warriors, we’ll see D.C. push for MORE CCSS/STEM in the coming election period. Watch for it, fight it, and help STOP it! The noise we make, the actions we take are certainly “American made”!