Analysis of Amendments & Votes for HR 5 - The Student Success Act

The US House of Representatives completed the consideration of their version of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) currently called No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on July 8th. This process began in February but was halted thanks to the great opposition by all of us working together - parents, teachers and other citizens that oppose the ever expanding federal role in education.While this bill is definitely much better than the Senate Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), it still has many fatal flaws. (See also HERE). These include: Cementing of Common Core via the requirement in state plans that must be approved by the secretary that states have college and career ready standards

Continuation of the federal mandate of annual tests with their continued psychological profiling and data mining

Removal of the prohibition on attitudinal profiling in the mandated statewide tests

No real enforcement mechanism for states that are bullied by federal interference in standards or tests such as Common Core

The vote was a very narrow 218-213 with every single Democrat opposing the bill due to not enough federal control but ultimately doing the right thing and 27 Republicans opposing it due to still too much control. We thank all who voted against this bill, but especially mention and thank the Republicans who were courageous enough to stand against their leadership in order to support the rights of students, parents, teachers, and local school districts over corporations and the federal government. We especially thank the Florida delegation who had the most no votes of any state in the country - Republicans Clawson, DeSantis, Miller, and Yoho and Democrats: Graham, Brown, Grayson, Castor, Murphy, Hastings, Deutch, Frankel, Wasserman Schultz, and Wilson. : Amash (MI) Graves (LA) Meadows (NC)
Brooks (AL) Graves (MO) Miller (FL)
Buck (C0) Hice (GA) Rohrbacher (CA) < Read more

Posted in Federal Education. Tagged as early childhood education, HR 5, opt-out, Psychological Profiling, Rep. Curt Clawson, Rep. Jeff Miller, Rep. John Kline, Rep. Matt Salmon, Rep. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Ted Yoho, Rep. Todd Rokita, Rep. Vern Buchanan, statewide tests, Student Success Act.

6 Ways the Feds Are Psychoanalyzing your Child! Oppose S 1177 & HR 5!

Karen R. Effrem, MD Executive Director of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition & President of Education Liberty Watch
Uncle Sam is lately wearing a white coat and placing American students on the psychiatrist's couch. The number of federal education bills, tests, programs and other policies promoting indoctrination and assessment of affective attitudes, beliefs, "mindsets," "non-cognitive skills" and other non-academic traits is rapidly and alarmingly proliferating. Here are the most recent and very concerning examples:1) The Every Child Achieves Act (S 1177) This is the 792 page Senate version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization. Some of the many examples of federal expansion of mental health screening in the schools include: Training teachers who are not mental health professionals to mentally screen student

Doing special education (IDEA)-style behavioral monitoring and intervention school-wide without delineation between observation, suggestion, and treatment nor clear methods of parental consent and privacy protection for behavioral information.

The federal government is promoting the concept that schools taking on the functions of families and physicians by paying for schools to provide mental health care

They are even putting mental health in physical education

2) The Student Success Act (HR 5) The House version of the ESEA/NCLB reauthorization expands affective testing by omission instead of commission and also continues mental health programs for certain groups: The rewrite of the section that discusses state standards, assessments and accountability leaves out the key protection that prohibits the federally mandated state tests that "evaluate or assess personal or family beliefs and attitudes." This was one of the few good pieces of language in No Child Left Behind.

Title I funding includes funding for coordination of all sorts of health Read more

Posted in Psychological Manipulation. Tagged as HR 5, IDEA, NAEP, Psychological Profiling, RTT-ELC, S 1177, SETRA.

Imporant Federal Education Bills to Discuss with Members of Congress

Here are brief descriptions of three great and important federal education bills that increase parental rights, state sovereignty, and local control. Then are three bills that dramatically increase federal control and destroy education data privacy as well as our children's freedom of conscience and the rights to be secure in their thoughts and attitudes without federally funded psychological profiling. Please review this information and ask your members of Congress by phone (www.house.gov/representatives and SENATORS RUBIO (202-224- 3041) AND NELSON (202-224-5274) to support the first three and oppose the second three: BILLS TO SUPPORT AND PROMOTE : 1) Student Privacy Protection Act (SPPA) - S 1341: The text of this great bill sponsored by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) is available HERE.This legislation provides important protections in the following areas:
Rolling back the disastrous extra-congressional regulatory changes that vastly expanded access of third parties to our children's personally identifiable data, now limiting that access and requiring parental consent in all cases

Holding educational agencies, schools, and third parties liable for violations of the law through monetary fines, damages, and court costs

Prohibiting psychological or attitudinal profiling of students or gathering of sensitive family information via any assessments, including academic assessments or survey.

Extending data protections for homeschooled students required to submit educational data to public school districts

Prohibiting educational agencies, schools, and the Secretary of Education from including personally identifiable information obtained from Federal or State agencies through data matches in student data.

Banning Federal education funds to states or districts that film, record, or monitor students or teachers in the classroom or remotely without parent or adult student and teacher consent.

Read more

Posted in Federal Education. Tagged as Every Child Achieves Act, HR 121; Rep. Scott Garrett; S. 1025;, HR 5, S 1177, S 1341; Senator David Vitter; LEARN Act, S 227, Senator John Tester, SETRA, Student Privacy Protection Act, Student Success Act.

Excellent Blog by Sandra Stotsky on HR 5 - Student Success Act

We are grateful to Sandra Stotsky for her very cogent analysis and for cutting through the doubletalk in this memo from the US House leadership on HR 5, The Student Success Act. This kind of work as well as analysis by many groups across the nation helped to put the bill on hold temporarily.

10 Things NCLB/ESEA Supporters Want You to Think About the Student Success Act: A Modification of What Was Issued by House Speaker John Boehner's Office

Prepared by Sandra Stotsky

February 23, 2015 | View OnlineFictional Purposes: This week, the House is set to vote on the Student Success Act, legislation to replace No Child Left Behind and expand opportunity in education so that every student can get ahead no matter where they're from. Read the text here, and a fact sheet from the Education & the Workforce Committee here. This measure contains a number of conservative reforms to reduce the federal footprint, restore local control, and empower parents and local leaders to hold schools accountable. Actual Purposes: HR 5 deliberately takes away most authority by parents and locally elected school boards, makes departments of education the conduits for federal policy, and does not require states to seek standards that prepare students for a STEM career.FICTION 1. The bill replaces No Child Left Behind with conservative reforms to restore local control and stop top-down education mandates. In the absence of congressional action, the Secretary of Education has been using waivers and pet programs to dictate national education policies and increase the federal foothold in the classroom. The Student Success Act will put a stop to this. FACT: The bill removes almost all acts of local control, including what is on the report card local schools give local parents. It doesn't empower parents or local school boards at all. It doesn't allow any school district to opt out of a state's assessment system.FICTION 2. The bill replaces the current national Read more

Posted in Federal Education. Tagged as ESEA, HR 5, SAndra Stotsky, Student Cussess Act.

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