http://www.gingrichproductions.com/2017/02/helping-the-next-generation-of-americans/

Helping the Next Generation of Americans

Gingrich Productions
February 15, 2017
Newt Gingrich

To receive Newt’s weekly newsletters, click here.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has made early childhood education an imperative. His goal is to increase the number of students in Georgia able to read at grade level by the completion of the third grade. 

While a fair amount of attention is being paid to what schools can do from Kindergarten through third grade to improve reading skills, some of the most interesting and potentially effective of Georgia’s initiatives in this area focus on a child’s life outside the classroom – indeed before they ever enter one. 

Georgia First Lady Sandra Deal is a teacher by training. She is launching the “Read Across Georgia” initiative, which promotes and supports adults reading with children – even as early as when they are first born. Her goal is to visit every school district in the state. 

Governor Deal has also established the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), a nonprofit group that promote and support early learning and healthy development programs for children up to five years old. Our daughter Jackie volunteers as the group’s treasurer.

A growing body of research shows that an enormous amount of a child’s brain development is influenced by their experiences as infants. According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard (CDCH), 700 to 1,000 new neural connections form every second during the first years of life. 

So when you see a parent, caregiver or older sibling talk, laugh, play or interact with an infant or toddler, this allows the baby’s brain to develop properly. Reading to young children is a great way to set them up for future success in school and in life. 

Of course, the opposite is also true. Early life experiences that cause the infant “toxic stress” – what the CDCH calls physical or emotional abuse, persistent neglect, or exposure to violence, and other forms of mental and physical harm – can cause long term damage. This includes disruptions to brain development, an increased risk for stress related disease, cognitive impairment, as well as other health problems such as heart and lung disease and high blood pressure, well into adulthood. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “At least one in four children have experienced child neglect or abuse (including physical, emotional, and sexual) at some point in their lives, and one in seven children experienced abuse or neglect in the last year.” With 74 million children in the United States, that equates to 10.5 million who were abused or neglected last year.

But those children are not lost causes. CDCH researchers have found that children with “at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult have a better chance of learning how to deal with stress.” This is why Big Brother, Big Sister and other mentor programs are so important and successful.

Governor and First Lady Deal deserve credit for making early childhood education a priority, and for finding creative ways to encourage healthy learning habits outside the classroom. Callista is especially grateful to Sandra Deal, for reading Ellis the Elephant history books to young people throughout Georgia.

Of course, we can do a lot more in our daily lives to help prepare children to succeed in school and life – and do so without the assistance of government programs or nonprofit groups. 

To start off, to be good mentors for children, we must learn to manage our own stress. Things like exercise, mental organization, and practicing self-discipline can “improve the abilities of children and adults to cope with, adapt to, and even prevent adversity in their lives. Adults who strengthen these skills in themselves can better model healthy behaviors for their children, thereby improving the resilience of the next generation,” according to the CDCH.

So the next time you are spending time with a grandchild or the parents of a young child remember: If we work hard to interact with children in a positive way – ours or others – and work to educate parents and caregivers on the importance of the first years of children’s lives, we can start a cycle to profoundly improve the lives of millions of Americans.

Sign up for Newt’s free weekly newsletters here:

---

Return to homepage

Sent from my iPhone

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/14/lefts-alinsky-plan-destroy-trump-administration/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

The Left’s Alinsky Plan to Destroy the Trump Administration

Associated Press

by Joel B. Pollak14 Feb 20171,232

When a former community organizer with little other experience became the Democratic Party nominee for president in 2008, conservatives began inquiring what, exactly, a “community organizer” does.

That led to a surge of interest in Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, a secular Bible among Barack Obama’s cohort of left-wing radicals in Chicago. In the White House, as aide Valerie Jarrett so memorably put it, Obama remained a community organizer, using his old tactics to push his agenda.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Now that they have been relegated to the opposition, Obama and the Democrats are not only using the same old Alinskyite tactics, but amplifying them through the media, who will never forgive President Donald Trump for winning the election. (Far from retiring quietly, Obama has been swift to criticize his successor and encourage left-wing protests against his policies.)

Here are just a few examples of Alinsky’s rules being put into practice in an effort to bring down the Trump administration.

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” During the 2016 election, the media tried to stop Trump from winning by focusing on his personal flaws, real and imagined. That failed — so they are targeting the people around Trump.

The most unfortunate victim of this strategy is not former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign this week, but White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, who is the most accessible member of the president’s media team, and one of the most effective. For making a flippant remark at the end of a Fox & Friends segment, in which she endorsed Ivanka Trump’s fashion line, she is now being singled out for investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics. (What “investigation” is needed? She was on live television.)

The media are simply throwing whatever they can at the people around Trump, whether it is true or not. For example, bloggers and journalists smeared Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka as a Nazi sympathizer, in keeping with the ongoing defamation of White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon (both formerly of Breitbart News) as a “white nationalist” and worse.

Sometimes the attacks are not only false, but also personally abusive, such as a recent article in Fusion targeting White House speechwriter and policy guru, Stephen Miller: “Why does Stephen Miller sound like such a dick? A voice coach explains.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough’s attacks on Miller have become so openly hostile to Miller, and so personal in nature (“my young, little Miller”) that even the Washington Post seemed genuinely taken aback by the Morning Joe host’s criticisms.

It is worth noting that the media did not press for the resignation of any of the Obama administration officials associated with much more serious scandals — Benghazi, the IRS scandal and the NSA scandal come to mind — even when officials admitted that they had misled Congress and the public. Now, the media are constantly searching for personalities they can pillory as proxies for the Trump administration as a whole.

“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” In the weeks after Election Day, Saturday Night Live contented itself with weepy tributes to Hillary Clinton. Now, however, it has returned to comedic form in ridiculing President Trump and his staff. There is nothing wrong with that — and Melissa McCarthy’s impersonation of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is funny — but what is interesting is that mainstream news outlets, such as CNN, often spend the next several days after each new sketch reporting and re-running Saturday Night Live segments as news.

Politico recently piled on with an entirely speculative report that Saturday Night Live could actually force the dismissal of the White House staffers it has been targeting, including Spicer. The obvious goal of such “fake news” stories is turn entertainment into a political weapon against the Trump administration.

“If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its [positive] counterside.” What Alinsky meant was that tactics that would ordinarily be abhorrent — say, rioting on a university campus, or telling the public that members of the government were “Nazis” — would be tolerated, and even celebrated, once they had been proven successful.

The current Democratic Party strategy is not to reach out to the voters they have lost over the past several years, but rather to make the country appear ungovernable, hoping that voters then turn to the Democrats for relief.

In recent protests at Los Angeles International Airport, for instance, Mayor Eric Garcetti not only joined demonstrators in solidarity, but did so at a time when protesters were blocking traffic and disrupting travel. He was perfectly willing to harm his own city for political gain — normally objectionable, except that it worked.

These tactics will not fade because of one resignation. Alinksy, after all, advised his acolytes to “keep the pressure on.” What is happening today will continue throughout the Trump administration. The government, and the conservative voters who are expecting it to deliver, will have to be just as tough, and even stronger, in the face of Alinskyite attacks.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Sent from my iPhone

EDUCATION SECRETARY DEVOS TO DUMP CULTURAL MARXISM RIDDLED COMMON CORE

https://overpassesforamerica.com/?p=44056

EDUCATION SECRETARY DEVOS TO DUMP CULTURAL MARXISM RIDDLED COMMON CORE #o4a #news

February 12, 2017 12:45 pm 

Mr Americana, Overpasses News Desk
February 13th, 2017
Overpasses For America
VIA NY POST

Definition of Cultural Marxism:

Cultural Marxism: An offshoot of Marxism that gave birth to political correctness, multiculturalism and “anti-racism.” 

Unlike traditional Marxism that focuses on economics, Cultural Marxism focuses on culture and maintains that all human behavior is a result of culture (not heredity / race) and thus malleable. Cultural Marxists absurdly deny the biological reality of gender and race and argue that gender and race are “social constructs”. 

Nonetheless, Cultural Marxists support the race-based identity politics of non-whites. Cultural Marxists typically support race-based affirmative action, the proposition state (as opposed to a nation rooted in common ancestry), elevating non-Western religions above Western religions, speech codes and censorship, multiculturalism, diversity training, anti-Western education curricula, maladaptive sexual norms and anti-male feminism, the dispossession of white people, and mass Third World immigration into Western countries. 

Cultural Marxists have promoted idea that white people, instead of birthing white babies, should interracially marry or adopt non-white children. Samuel P. Huntington maintained that Cultural Marxism is an anti-white ideology. 

Critics of Cultural Marxism have maintained that Cultural Marxists intend to commit genocide against white people through mass non-white immigration, assimilation, transracial adoption and miscegenation.

Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, will put the brakes on the contentious Common Core standards if she is confirmed by the Senate.

“It’s time to make education great again in this country,” she said at a Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Friday. “This means letting states set their own high standards and finally putting an end to the federalized Common Core.”

DeVos, a prominent Republican donor and the former head of the Michigan GOP, is known as a charter-school advocate and a booster of school choice and education vouchers.

DeVos’ five-minute speech echoed her new boss’s stance.

“The answer isn’t bigger government — it’s local control, it’s listening to parents, and it’s giving more choices,” she said.

Advocates on both sides of the bruising battle over the federalized education standards said they were cautiously optimistic about the incoming administration’s position.

“I’m happy to hear it,” said Michael Reilly, president of Community Education Council 31 in Staten Island, “but I’ve heard this kind of rhetoric in the past from both sides of the aisle.”

“We still see the measurement of our schools tied to testing,” Reilly said. “Until we move away from that, parents are not going to buy into the Common Core and the testing that goes with it.”

“This may actually allow us to go back to a previous era, when rigorous school standards were not this kind of pitched partisan battle,” said Marc Porter Magee, CEO of 50CAN, a national network of pro-Common Core advocates.

“When state and local leaders make their own decisions on school standards, they are much more likely to reach pragmatic decisions that will last,” Magee said.

Continue reading here.
For other important news,CLICK HERE

JOIN OVERPASSES FOR AMERICA TODAY, HELP SAVE AMERICA!!

overpassesforamerica.com

overpasses.org

America’s largest Patriot ACTION Movement

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Sent from my iPhone

Rep. Glenn introduces bill to repeal Common Core in Michigan

http://gophouse.org/rep-glenn-introduces-bill-repeal-common-core-michigan/

Congratulatory Certificate

Rep. Glenn introduces bill to repeal Common Core in Michigan

Categories: Glenn News,News

Associate Speaker of the House Pro Tem Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, today introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal state Common Core educational standards in Michigan, replacing them with proven standards and more emphasis on local control.

Glenn’s bill is co-sponsored by 26 Republican and two Democratic members of the House.

“Michigan students deserve the best standards, proven by actual test results,” Glenn said. “And ultimately, our own local school boards and educational leaders — not the federal government – know what’s best for Michigan students.”

Michigan began adopting the federal Common Core standards – related to teaching and testing of English and math – in 2010.

Glenn’s legislation would:

• Eliminate Common Core as the state’s educational standard.
• Replace them with acclaimed standards used in Massachusetts prior to the Obama Administration’s promotion of Common Core. Glenn cited a 2014 report from the Business Leaders for Michigan which noted, for example, that Massachusetts ranked first nationwide in fourth-grade reading (page 34), eighth-grade math (page 35) and career and college readiness (pages 36-37) while Michigan scored in the bottom half of the states.
• Give local school boards in Michigan the authority to adjust the standards as they decide what best serves their students’ interests.
• Parents would be free to opt their child out of any class, instruction or testing.
• The state and local schools would be prohibited from collecting data regarding an individual student’s values, attitudes, beliefs, and personality traits, or the student’s political or religious affiliations or views.
• Test questions used by public schools would be made easily available to the public.

Glenn noted that critics of Common Core have long cited the use of unproven methods under such standards for teaching math, unfunded mandates for intensive testing and other problems.

“It’s past time for Michigan to regain control over the education of our own children,” Glenn said.

The Michigan Competitiveness Committee, chaired by Speaker of the House Pro Tem Rep. Lee Chatfield of Levering, will hold a public hearing on the bill next Wednesday, Feb. 15 from noon to 1:30 p.m. The location of the hearing has not yet been finalized, but will occur either in the state Capitol or the House Office Building across the street depending on crowd size.

“Repealing Common Core is a priority of mine, and I applaud Rep. Glenn for his leadership on this issue,” Chatfield said. “I’m eager to review the specifics of this legislation at our next committee hearing this Wednesday.”

Glenn said the legislation is the product of nearly two years of work by a group of education reform advocates in Michigan and nationally who believe the Common Standards have negatively impacted student performance and learning.

The legislation is House Bill 4192.

###

Sent from my iPhone

http://www.businessinsider.com/pisa-worldwide-ranking-of-math-science-reading-skills-2016-12

The latest ranking of top countries in math, reading, and science is out — and the US didn't crack the top 10

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the results of its 2015 global rankings on student performance in mathematics, reading, and science, on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA.

The PISA is a worldwide exam administered every three years that measures 15-year-olds in 72 countries. About 540,000 students took the exam in 2015.

The US saw an 11-point drop in average score for math, while remaining relatively flat in reading and science.

Business Insider

The results again raise questions about the global competitiveness of the US educational system.

On a press call on Tuesday, Jon Schnur, executive chairman of America Achieves, said we need to make dramatic progress in showing educational improvement for students.

When looking at a comparable sample of countries that participated in the PISA exam in both 2012 (the last time the test was administered) and 2015, the US ranking fell to 35th from 28th in math. The US underperformed the OECD average in math. 

Scores were relatively unchanged in reading and science compared to 2012 - down one point in each. The US performed better than the OECD average in both subjects.

Asian countries again topped the rankings across all subjects, and Singapore was the top performing country across all three subjects.

Sent from my iPhone

https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/02/hours-before-devos-confirmation-rep-massie-dropped-a-bill-to-get-rid-of-her-job-forever?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=020717MassieDevos&utm_campaign=crfb

Hours before DeVos’ confirmation, Rep. Massie dropped a bill to get rid of her job forever

With a single tie-breaking "Aye" and a bang of the gavel, philanthropist and school choice activist Betsy DeVos became the newest U.S. secretary of education.

I appreciate the Senate's diligence & am honored to serve as @usedgov Secretary. Let's improve options & outcomes for all US students.

— Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVos) February 7, 2017

Naturally, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as acolytes of the government school monopoly started losing it almost instantly. Social media abounded 140-character manifestos of woe, outrage, and other school choice-hating bile, as visions of schoolhouse-free dystopias ran rampant in the anti-educational freedom hive mind.

But worry not, ye unhinged haters of liberty, there’s still a way to keep Betsy Devos from having any sway whatsoever over public education in the United States. And a libertarian congressman from Kentucky knows just how to do it.

As the upper chamber geared up for the historic 51-50 education secretary vote, a measure to abolish her new place of employment was introduced in the House of Representatives. Sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. (A, 94%), H.R. 899 would shutter the doors at DeVos’ new office – and thus the heated debate over her employment – at the end of the 2018 calendar year.

"Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development,” reads a press release from Massie’s office. “States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school."

The bill is currently co-sponsored by a handful of other GOP members, including Reps. Justin Amash, R-Mich. (A, 96%), Jason Chaffetz, R-Idaho (C, 78%), and Raul Labrador, R-Utah (A, 93%).

“D.C. bureaucrats cannot begin to understand the needs of schools and its students on an individual basis,” reads a statement from co-sponsor Walter Jones, R-N.C. (C, 76%). “It is time that we get the feds out of the classroom, and terminate the Department of Education.”

Since so many are concerned about a friend of school potentially making cabinet-level decisions on education, and since grassroots conservatives still have so much reason to be wary of Betsy DeVos’ record on Common Core, perhaps now might be a good time to finally accomplish what President Reagan started over 30 years ago, and get rid of the Department of Education once and for all.

Nate Madden is a Staff Writer for Conservative Review, focusing on religious freedom, jihadism, and the judiciary. He previously served as the Director of Policy Relations for the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative. A Publius Fellow, John Jay Fellow, Citadel Parliamentary Fellow and National Journalism Center alumnus, Nate’s writing has previously appeared in several religious and news publications. Follow him @NateMaddenCR and on Facebook. 

Sent from my iPhone

Everything you want to know about Betsy Devos

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1370319352978829/permalink/1488959581114805/

Everything you want to know about Betsy Devos and why she should not be confirmed to this position of Secretary of Education.

The day of the DeVos appointment .... "Tonya Allen, president and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, and co-chair of Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, said on Wednesday that she is extraordinarily happy for DeVos and is grateful she is a supporter of Common Core." http://www.detroitnews.com/…/trump-devos-education/94344918/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

"Michigan parent activist Karen Braun tells Breitbart News DeVos never used any of her time or wealth to assist parents in her state in their efforts to repeal Common Core. “DeVos prefers to be out of the limelight and let others like the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) do the heavy lifting,” Braun says. “But activists and lawmakers in Michigan know her pro-Common Core position very well.”

http://www.breitbart.com/…/bush-praises-trump-choice-betsy…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“Her organization, American Federation for Children, contributed HUGE sums of money for state school board races in Alabama on the side of Common Core supporters trying to oust Common Core opponents.”

“Trump’s transition team reported that his “discussion with DeVos was focused on the Common Core mission, and setting higher national standards and promoting the growth of school choice across the nation.” I wanted to scream when I heard those words! “Setting higher nations standards” is code for Common Core. National standards are what Common Core was designed to be.” 

http://newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh373.htm #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“Many of us are skeptical that she is not a supporter of Common Core as she has not spoken out against it one time during the seven years it was being implemented and as she sat on the Board of Jeb Bush’s organization, Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE).” 

“If she doesn’t see major problems with ESSA, FERPA regulations which are meaningless and the increased data tracking of students from birth/Pre-K through their careers, then your concerns about Ms. Devos as Education Secretary (her lack of educational experience, NGO connections) are probably well-founded. It will also be incumbent upon those in the confirmation hearings to question her on exactly what she has done to raise student achievement.”

http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/stuffing-the-public-e…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“It simply doesn’t make sense that DeVos would contribute boatloads of money to – and even lead — organizations that actively push a policy with which she disagrees. Would a pro-life philanthropist write checks to Planned Parenthood because the abortion mill provides the occasional Pap test?”

https://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/…/trumps-common-cor…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“DeVos argues that she supports these groups’ advocacy of school choice but not Common Core. But the Trump transition team itself announced that Trump’s “discussion with [DeVos] was focused on the Common Core mission, and setting higher national standards . . . .” And even without this admission, it simply doesn’t make sense that DeVos would contribute boatloads of money to – and even lead -- organizations that actively push a policy with which she disagrees. Would a pro-life philanthropist write checks to Planned Parenthood because the abortion mill provides the occasional Pap test?”

http://townhall.com/…/jane…/2016/11/30/jebs-revenge-n2252295 #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“DeVos and GLEP lobbied the Michigan legislature to implement and maintain Common Core and related reforms. Former MI State Representative, now State School Board member-elect Tom McMillin, recently spoke to our team about DeVos and her claim that she is against Common Core. McMillin, a strong opponent of Common Core, recalled that in 2013 DeVos specifically told him she was for Common Core during the very contentious legislative debate to stop implementation.”

DeVos, who backed Sen. Marco Rubio during the primary, and then served as an at-large delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the Republican National Convention, was opposed to Trump’s nomination for president, referring to him as an “interloper” who would never achieve the nomination because he didn’t “represent the Republican Party.”

http://www.breitbart.com/…/common-core-opponents-trump-dra…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“Michigan supporters of the Common Core standards are praising President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head up the U.S. Department of Education.”

http://www.breitbart.com/…/michigan-common-core-supporters…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

"So much so that his pick for Secretary of Education is now backtracking on her years of actions financially supporting Common Core. She sits on Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education. This foundation LOVES Common Core and all that comes with it. DeVos, through the Betsy and Steve DeVos Foundation, poured millions of dollars into pro-Common Core candidates."

https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/…/america-is-get…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

"I've seen (and written about) the policy influence of the FEE (and others against Common Core) right here in Oklahoma during our Common Core fight (and apparently, education activists in Michigan have witnessed the exact same top-down policy-pushing from the DeVos Foundation first hand). I KNOW how money creates and dictates policy, yet I thought this to be EXACTLY the kind of thing you said you would fight against as president. None of this bodes well for American education moving forward, nor our trust in you to uphold your campaign promises."

http://reclaimoklahomaparentempowerment.blogspot.com/…/ques… #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

"Hensley-Clancy writes that DeVos now claims to be against Common Core, of all things! That’s sure news to all the grassroots folks she pit her big money against during their legislative battles to reject Common Core. Grassroots folks report to me that DeVos’ husband personally called state senators in Michigan to get them to vote against a Common Core repeal bill. DeVos’ American Federation for Children also contributed huge sums of money for state school board races in Alabama on the side of Common Core supporters trying to oust Common Core opponents."

https://www.conservativereview.com/…/betsy-devos-as-educati… #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommnonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

"Betsy DeVos has no record of Common Core opposition. The website statement and tweet the day she was appointed were the first indications of being against Common Core ever documented. In fact, she has been described as supporting Common Core by Tonya Allen of the Skillman Foundation in the Detroit News. There is absolutely no record of her or any of the three major organizations that she has founded, chaired or still chairs, and funds The Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), The American Federation for Children (AFC), and the Philanthropy Roundtable (PR) ever having opposed Common Core. She never reached out to, and in fact, steadfastly refused to meet with or assist Stop Common Core in Michigan in any way. The GLEP executive director even threatened these parents with legal action."

http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/…/betsy-jeb-high-standard…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

MidEast Policy Council’s “Teach MidEast” and its “Bridges at School” curriculum. (She’s also a Common Core supporter and fought to make this anti-Israel crap part of the Common Core agenda taught at America’s public schools.)"

"Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick DeVos (also born into money) are donors and contributors to ACCESS–the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. And they also attend ACCESS annual fundraising dinners."

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/…/betsy-devos-affirmative-a…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

MICHIGAN SCHOOLS

“If you look at the DeVos role and engagement in Michigan politics over the last three decades, you’ll see a very consistent brand and pattern of political contributions,” McNeilly said. “Seldom have they accurately been called part of the establishment.” However if you ask any grassroots Republican or active Tea Party member, they will tell you otherwise.”

http://settingrecordstraight.blogspot.com/…/why-is-devos-fa… #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“DeVos and the Great Lakes Education Project* (GLEP) group she has funded and directed, still have time to support this bill and demand it be put on the calendar and voted on. *Unfortunately, GLEP had previously stated that they “support common core”, perhaps they have since changed their mind? Sadly, another group partnered with GLEP, the Michigan Coalition for High Student Standards, actually testified against SB-826 on April 19, 2016.”

http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/michigan-has-bill-to-…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“ DeVos is part of the Lansing “swamp.” Through her group, Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) she works to silence opposition and defeat legislation that would stop Common Core in Michigan.”

“We change policy through political effort. to elect or defeat candidates in states based on this issue [school choice]. Their support or lack of support for the issue. Then we work on the policies, the legislation, the actual programs that they would consider. and we advocate to get those passed in the legislatures and with the Governors.”

http://stopcommoncoreinmichigan.com/…/dick-betsy-devos-adm…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“In 2014, for example, DeVos and her husband Doug donated $1.45 million to Michigan lawmakers to defeat a bill that would have increased scrutiny of publicly-funded, for-profit charter schools.”

http://ateacheronteaching.blogspot.com/…/betsy-devos-amway-… #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

"As one of the architects of Detroit’s charter school system, she is partly responsible for what even charter advocates acknowledge is the biggest school reform disaster in the country. At least some of the other candidates for education secretary, like Michelle Rhee, the former District of Columbia schools chancellor, led reforms that were accompanied by improved student results."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/…/betsy-devos-and-the-wrong-way-t… #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

“Michigan is one of the nation’s biggest school choice laboratories, especially with charter schools. The Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids school districts have among the nation’s 10 largest shares of students in charters, and the state sends $1 billion in education funding to charters annually. Of those schools, 80 percent are run by for-profit organizations, a far higher share than anywhere else in the nation.”

“The DeVoses, the most prominent name in state Republican politics, have been the biggest financial and political backers of the effort.”

“But if Michigan is a center of school choice, it is also among the worst places to argue that choice has made schools better. As the state embraced and then expanded charters over the past two decades, its rank has fallen on national reading and math tests. Most charter schools perform below the state average.”

https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/…/trump-ed-sec-pick-betsy-…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

DATA MINING

“Apparently, Ms. DeVos supports allowing big technology companies to datamine children, 50,000 data points per hour, without parents knowing about it or ever seeing how the data are shared, used and profiled.”

“DeVos is Chair of The Philanthropy Round Table, a group that focuses on Venture Capital Philanthropy (and making “serious money“) and also promotes computer-based datamining and as an added bonus, this group Chaired by Devos is also excited about Common Core.” 

http://missourieducationwatchdog.com/dreambox-datamining-d…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

OHIO ELECTION FINES

"A pro-school-choice organization once directed by Besty DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, owes a record $5.3 million in fines to the Ohio Elections Commission."

http://www.dispatch.com/…/Group_once_led_by_Trump_education… #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

MUSLIM CONNECTION

To be clear, Michigan has the most concentrated Muslim population outside of the Middle East. This is in large part because of an organization called the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), based in Dearborn, Michigan. ACCESS, is the largest social services nonprofit org in the nation and was founded by Ismael Ahmed. As noted here, where it is shown Ahmed was running for the MI Board of Education, “Ismael grew ACCESS into a national human service and advocacy agency with affiliates in 24 cities.” 

ACCESS, is funded by the Dick and Betsey Devos Foundation along with http://teachmideast.org/about/featured-partnerships/

http://www.voicesempower.com/trump-devos-national-security…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

CLINTON DONATIONS

West Michigan Politics reported that, like Donald Trump himself, the DeVos family has donated to the Clinton Foundation:

According to a WMP analysis of Clinton Foundation records, the DeVos family donated between $60,000-$130,000.

http://www.educationviews.org/trump-education-chief-pick-b…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

STEVE DEACE

Check out The Legacy of Thanksgiving. Deace speaks about the DeVos choice starting at 2 minutes. https://player.fm/series/steve-deace-show-117577 #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

Dangers of Vouchers

Dangers of vouchers. Trump’s voucher plan. A 38 minute podcast on vouchers and their danger by KrisAnne Hall, lawyer and Constitutional advocate. There is a full all out push coming and it will be led by DeVos. If successful it will accomplish putting parents under control of federal gov. Will increase money spent by feds on education from $540,000,000 to $130 billion ($20B from the feds and $110B from the states) if the Trump plan is implemented. Control of all parents/children under the poverty level if they sign on to new voucher programs. Take the money and take the mandates of national curriculum and national methodology. 

https://www.podomatic.com/…/episo…/2016-11-29T07_29_17-08_00 #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommnonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

Those answers “combined with her record of support for very regulated voucher plans in Indiana and Louisiana that require administration of the state (Common Core) tests … is extremely concerning for the autonomy and viability of private schools,” she adds.

http://www.breitbart.com/…/sen-lamar-alexander-delays-vote…/ #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommnonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

Anyone else notice the DeVos donee's are praising her and not the grassroots, parents and school activists?​

If DeVos was truly anti-common core, someone will be able to list her activism and donations towards anti-common core causes. Hell, I'll take a minimal anti-common core statement. Start the day before her appointment (11/16/16) then go back years. Is there anything? Please list it below.

This is from Jeb Bushes Excellence in Education (Excel In Ed) national common core/Fed Ed education institute. This was taken the day of the DeVos appointment (11/16/16). If she was so anti-common core why is she on this board and a major donor? Alternatively, do you think Jeb had a board member that was working against him on his board ... for years? Do you think she’d donate to a cause she doesn’t believe in… for years?

Trump was the one who said he would end the DoED. He was the one that said he would end common core. Trump said he only hires the best people. So when Trump has the opportunity to translate his campaign language into action, he appoints a pro-common core person. This is holding Trump to his word. He failed. That isn't a past grievance between us, it's an action he chose to do. Nothing to do with me.

What would you be saying if Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, was selected as the head of HSS? Then the day of that appointment Richards swears that she is now prolife and will only pursue prolife policies. Wouldn't you be skeptical? Or more likely, wouldn't you scream foul at the fundamental betrayal? #StopDeVos #Trump #StopCommonCore #WakeUpAmerica #KellyanneConway #TCOT #CCOT #CommonCore

Please explain how you can be a top donor and board member of the national pro common core Jeb Bush Foundation, then have an appointment day epiphany and wash years of pro-common core activism and millions of dollars in donations away?

Both FreedomWorks and Heritage will endorse their mega donor. The legislators, prone to follow the money and not do their homework, will hide behind that endorsement and confirm her. The DeVos' have given millions to their state party and the RNC. Simply put, they can't afford not to confirm her.

Because "choice" is a false choice... it comes with control that homogenizes and degrades almost all education over time. The only uncontrolled schools will be those that don't accept state aid, vouchers, etc. and those will, of course, the super expensive schools that only the elite can send their children to.

"Choice" is a trap. Parents run to it to escape the mess that is being made of public education only to find that education reform relentlessly follows them wherever they go. There is no escape with ESSA and WOIA. You *WILL* be assimilated.

School Choice is just a vehicle the CCSS virus uses to spread. So now, instead of all public schools being hobbled by CCSS curriculum and testing, now nearly all schools will be hobbled. In so doing, of course "choice" becomes no real choice at all. We just end up with a bunch of crappy schools... some private, some charter, some public... all indistinguishable, at least at the classroom level.

Adding accountability and competition to schools just turns our current socialized education entitlement into a fascist education mandate. They are both now vehicles for top down control. Just different faces of the same Statist coin. There is no educational freedom here. There is no marketplace. There is no choice. Its all just control and the serfs collar just gets tighter with each passing day.