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Tag Archives | Department of Education

Arizona: AIMS Failed And So Will PARCC and Common Core

By on May 16, 2013 in Education, Government, Quotes 6

Benjamin Franklin said, “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” I think that we can all agree that education is paramount to a successful society and that it would behoove us to create a system that promotes and accelerates. However, how do we ensure that our children are best educated?

There is a new program on the block that is getting snapped up by schools around the country called the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI). In Arizona the AIMS test has been struck out and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has taken its place which uses the CCSSI platform. As of right now the teachers have been getting trained of how to teach a CCSSI based classroom. Next Governor Brewer must sign AZ HB2047 to allow the PARCC test be the new standardized test for Arizona. The third phase is for the PARCC test scores to be shared with the federal and other state governments to continue to standardize the test. AZ HB2563 requires the AZ State Board to enforce the PARCC testing. Neither HB2047 or HB2563 have been signed into law but Governor Brewer’s aide Matthew Benson stated, “At the heart of Common Core is the notion of implementing more stringent internationally benchmarked standards. She is 100 percent supportive of the concept.”

If we can encourage our politicians to vote NAY on HB2047 and HB2563, we’ve effectively stopped the Phase II of the implementation of the Common Core.

Debra Goodwin here at TAC has written a good overview of CCSSI and why it is bad in her article called Common Core: An Attack on Freedom and What to Do About it. Columnist Michelle Malkin wrote, “For decades, collectivist agitators in our schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness, diversity and social justice. Progressive reformers denounced Western civilization requirements, the Founding Fathers and the Great Books as racist. They attacked traditional grammar classes as irrelevant in modern life. They deemed ability grouping of students (tracking) bad for self-esteem. They replaced time-tested rote techniques and standard algorithms with fuzzy math, inventive spelling and multi-cultural claptrap.” Continue Reading →

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And the Government Wants to Disarm You?

By on April 1, 2010 in Big Brother, Big Government 2

This story has been slightly under the radar. The Department of No Education is buying shotguns for its police force.

According to documentation, the Department of Education’s office of Inspector General ordered for delivery – probably this week sometime – 27 Remington 870 12-gauge shotguns with 14 inch barrels for officials in just two offices.

Education Department spokeswoman Catherine Grant explained the office is a “law enforcement agency.”

“The Office of Inspector General is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Education and is responsible for the detection of waste, fraud, abuse, and other criminal activity involving federal education funds, programs, and operations,” Grant said.

As such, its agents have full law enforcement authority, she said.

Here’s the government’s solicitation. The Washington Post barely covered the story.

Meanwhile, here’s what happens when you give guns to underskilled, incompetent, federal employees who don’t have the wherewithal to get good jobs in the private sector. They lose their guns in public places.

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Down with the DOE!

By on March 22, 2010 in Delegated Powers, Education 1

There are no teachers in the Federal Department of Education. This bureaucracy only takes resources from the education process. In Oregon, as a state we spend $9257/year per student on education. In addition, the Federal Govt. taxes the citizens of Oregon $1500/year, per student, of which it returns $1000 in the form of block grants. For the privilege of having the Federal Govt. absorb $500 per student, Oregon gets to be subjected to a host of federal mandates to qualify for the “federal aid.”

Of the money the state takes in, the amount actually spent on educational activity is $5074- what happens to the rest of the money? The rest is spent on compliance to federal mandates and a host of social costs associated with educating people who don’t speak English, to people with disabilities, to “hot lunches,” or to any number of other politically correct causes (not that I am arguing against those). My main beef on this is with the Federal Dept. of Education.

I will defy anyone to show me the enumerated authority in the U.S Constitution which gives the Federal Government the power to regulate or in any way control education.

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