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CNS News Interviews Dr. Effrem About 'Parent Replacement Centers' Amendment in ECAA

August, 2015

Many thanks to Barbara Hollingsworth for her excellent and in-depth article about Senator Sharrod Brown's amendment that passed in the Senate No Child Left Behind Rewrite called the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA).  This amendment continues funding for the very nanny state program called The Full Service Community.  Here is our description from the summary of ECAA:


Brown amendment (SA 2100) to restore the Full Service Community Schools grants from NCLB Despite Alexander's opposition, the horrific grant program that turns schools into a second or even first home for children and reduces parents to "breeders and feeders," passed 43-51.  Among the purposes of the program are to "ensure that children have the physical, social, and emotional well-being to come to school ready to engage in the learning process every day."  The grantee is supposed to do a means assessment that "identifies the academic, physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs of students, families, and community residents," which will include all sorts of mental health data gathering. The list  of services that can be offered is 23 items long and included mental health services and "other services consistent with this part." All of the Democrats plus Republicans Ayotte, Blunt (MO), Capito, Collins, Fischer (NE), Hoeven (ND), Isakson (GA), and Portman voted for this nanny state expansion while all of the rest of the Republicans, including presidential candidates Cruz and Paul wisely voted against it, Sanders voted for it, and Graham and Rubio did not vote.

Here is her description:

The U.S. Department of Education's Full Service Community Schools Program has awarded $55.2 million to various applicants since FY 2008, with preference given to groups that operate in the White House's designated Promise Zones.
The department filed a notice in the Federal Register on May 6 soliciting applications for the program, which will be paid for by The Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE).

Applicants, defined as "consortia consisting of a local educational agency and one or more community-based organizations," can request up to $500,000 for each of five years, for a maximum of $2.5 million. So far this year, the department has awarded 12 grants totaling $5.2 million.

According to the Coalition for Community Schools, there are an estimated 5,000 full service community schools currently in operation in the U.S. "Using public schools as hubs, community schools bring together many partners to offer a range of supports and opportunities to children, youth, families and communities," the group's website states.

Brown's amendment would extend funding for five years for schools that participate "in a community-based effort to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services through community-based organizations and public and private partnerships."

According to his bill, such schools must agree to provide "not less than 3 qualified services ...and not less than 2 additional qualified services" to students both before and after school, on the weekends and during the summer "to meet the holistic needs of children".

The type of services that would be provided are based on a "needs assessment that identifies the academic, physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs of students, families, and community residents."

Here is Dr. Effrem's discussion of the mental health and indoctrination concerns with this program:
This is basically the government schools taking over the duties of families. It's very scary," agreed Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Education Liberty Watch."At least the House was strong and wise enough not to allow such an amendment," which she says "turns schools into a second or even first home for children and reduces parents to 'breeders and feeders'.

 "I have been fighting against both the data-mining of students and the psychological profiling of students for many years," Effrem told CNSNews.com. "This program is horrible because it continues the great expansion of federal psychological profiling of children, and it also will result in a ton of data-mining of students and their families about very non-academic subjects.
"It will not only run your life, but control what your kids are taught," she said. "A big part of it is the mental health screenings of children and families that really opens the door for a tyrannical imposition of thought and conscience norms by the government.  
"The National Center for Education Statistics and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Education are already collecting data on bullying incidents that have to do with perceived gender identity and sexual orientation. And there are already violence prevention programs that talk about kids as potentially violent or mentally unstable if they make statements about LGBT students or religion," Effrem pointed out.

"Of course, this is incredibly subjective and open to all sorts of political correctness. Who's going to define what the norms are?" she asked.

This is all the more evidence that the conference report from these bills needs to be defeated!


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