Warriors in the War Vs the Core, we are approaching the one year ‘anniversary’ of the passage of the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) into federal law. While much remains status quo in the quest to transform American education into a skill based worker pipeline, much has already changed. As we approach a new calendar year, new administration, and new ESSA mandates in action, we must remember one thing:
Protect the students, teachers, and citizens!
Just take a close look at the feature shot above. It was one of the simplest ways to illustrate how all the recent laws, initiatives, and programs tie altogether for one goal. What the CCSS Machine often calls our students: ‘human capital’ or ‘talent pipeline supply’.
Those recent laws?
HEA (Higher Education Act of 2008) is said to be currently under its latest rewriting
WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014),
STEM* (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Act of 2015
ESSA, 2015
*STEM actually appeared about the same time as Common Core State Standards according to a 2010 PCAST (Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) Report.
Each of these connect Career Tech Ed, Career Pathways or Clusters, STEM to STEAM, American Apprenticeships, and all the associated programs to the shift from academics to workforce. ESSA refers to all of this as ‘college and career readiness’ or ‘challenging state academic standards. ESSA also collectively groups all the initiatives and programs into professional development/streamlined learning with one goal:
Post secondary readiness in competency based education
Workforce/Ed News With A Spin:
During the past week, the U.S. House’s Ed and Workforce Committee have been zipping out press releases ‘celebrating’ the important work of the past few years under Rep. Kline’s leadership. Somehow, we the Warriors and Citizens, need to be reminded of the pro CCSS/CTE side of education at the hands of these legislative educrats. They are desperate to have us believe all this reform will make our nation stronger.
However, this past week isn’t the only time the CCSS Machine has used Congress to churn out fodder. Since the last recess began, Ed/Workforce has zipped out many such press releases. I’ve dug through those and shown you the fallacies. I’ll include them in the Related Resource section below.
The ‘Success’ Emails:
A quadruple spun set of Ed/Workforce articles began showing up in my email on Nov. 30th. The subject title? “Leadership & Results: Empowering Americans to compete in the workforce”
The email was quick to point out that under Rep. Kline’s leadership, the Committee had worked hard on the behalf of all Americans. The track record of ‘success’ begins (in the email) in 2007. It also points out the Skills Act* of 2011 where Rep. Foxx was a key player. (Look for my Skills Act article below in Related Resources.) The email ends with the terrific news about WIOA becoming law. No where in the email does it state Rep. Foxx was set to become the new chair for Ed/Workforce.
*Skills Act (2013) stands for: “The Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act”
It was also Rep. Foxx’s ‘baby’. (In Monday’s article, we’ll look closely at her education stance.)
The bottom line? American education had already begun its shift to becoming a workforce based education well before 2007, the Skills Act.
The next Ed/Workforce email was also dated 11/30/16. It’s subject line? “Leadership & Results Part 2: Helping every child receive an excellent education”
Right away, the red flag was the same introduction as the first. How hard Ed/Workforce had worked to represent the citizens of America. Another red flag? The ‘lifelong learning’ educratic phrase is code for ‘birth to grave’ streamlined education* (look for “Local Schools Open for WIOA in ‘Related Resources’). This email was all about how ‘local’ ESSA is going to make American education.
The bottom line? No American citizen truly desires ‘success’ at the price our government expects our education system to cough up.
Ed/Workforce’s third email (dated 12/1/16) focused on child safety via Neighborhood Development Block Grants. The subject line stated it this way, “Leadership & Results Part 3: Protecting the nation’s most vulnerable”. This will most definitely continue to tie education to the U.S. Dept. of HHS (Health and Human Services). In ‘Related Resources’ look for the “Sure Fire Disaster” article.
Lastly, the series of ‘success’ emails showed up on Dec. 2nd. It’s subject line, “Leadership & Results Part 4: Making it easier for students to pursue higher education”. This email touted the “Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013”. Warriors, while I have not studied this Law, I can tell you what I do know about higher education when it comes to the federal overreaches. Look in ‘Related Resources’ for them.
To find all 4 press releases: http://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=1854:1826:1925:1825:1924:2481
Related Resources:
1) This one shows Rep. Foxx’s statement in support of competency based, federally supported innovations in education, as well as Rep. Kline’s ties to Sen. Alexander, along with how Lumina and other CCSS Machine members are involved:
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/08/23/weekend-news-hea-higher-ed-act-and-the-common-core/
2) The Skills Act article: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/09/29/ftf-more-tracking-the-workforce-aligned-society/ (*Note, it will show you how the SKILLS Act was embedded in not only WIOA, but will link you to my article where it was also embedded in the House/Senate versions of what was to become ESSA! In case you do not spot the link (will be in ‘Related Articles’ at the bottom, here is the link: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/09/27/weekend-news-tracking-the-ccsscteworkforce-aligned-society/)
3) WIOA and HEA embedded into ESSA articles (has page numbers to the Final Conference Report version):
a) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/09/27/weekend-news-tracking-the-ccsscteworkforce-aligned-society/
b) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/01/05/essa-ties-to-wioa-2014-and-new-citizens/
4) ESSA and WIOA, along with HEA and STEM mean to have every citizen, regardless of age or school choice, somewhere in the ‘talent supply, workforce based education pipeline’.
https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/08/23/local-schools-open-for-wioa/ (*Note: this is also the article where you will find the featured image.)
5) How ‘local’ can a State be with ESSA aligned national leadership (P3s, public private partnerships)? These articles expose what Ed/Workforce didn’t.
a) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/03/22/essa-aligners/
b) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/02/04/essa-and-digital-overload/
c) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/02/05/weekend-news-the-ies-and-the-essa/
d) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/02/18/essa-and-teacher-pay/
e) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/03/01/warriors-guide-to-essa-and-private-education/
f) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/03/28/principled-leadership-in-the-essa-era/
6) Just one of the HHS articles I have which directly relates to ESSA and fed ed overreach:
7) The ‘affordable’ post-secondary education myth can be tied to the CCSS Machine in these articles. One of the most vocal selling points for HEA re-authorization will most definitely include student debt load and taxpayer burdens. While it is true these need addressing, must they be tied to the CCSS Machine to achieve them?! NO!!!
a) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/05/28/affording-ccss-higher-ed-reform/
(*Note: takes a look at federal and state (NC) legislation meant to help ease student debt, but with a ton of CCSS Machine strings.)
b) https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/06/11/tech-thursday-more-alexander-hea-and-the-next-america/ (*Note: written in 2015, this one shows you Sen. Alexander leading the bandwagon for higher education reform. Since he’s ruined K-12, we know he’ll ruin higher education, too.!)
c) Since we’re already in the fiscal year of 2017, you may wish to see how the ‘savings’ for higher education is to occur in this article. https://www.commoncorediva.com/2016/02/13/big-bucks-for-post-secondary-ed/ (*Note: if you like, skip to the “Next Up: It’s All in the Name of Savings” portion.)
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