URGENT: Phone Calls Needed to Protect Home Education in FL
HB 859 – HOME EDUCATION WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS BILL! YOU MUST CALL TODAY 2/23 OR 2/24!
Not this year, but within 5 years, all homeschools will be affected – it is a slippery slope. See the article from the CATO Institute below, which explains how HB 859 will bring private schools taking scholarships under the CORE first, then all private schools and home education.
This provision needs to be removed from the bill: I have been meeting with key legislators and Rep. Richard Corcoran, the sponsor of HB 859, asking that the provision in the bill allowing private schools with tax credit scholarship students to administer the FCAT to all students, even those not on tax credit scholarships, to be removed. Senate Bill 962 does not have the FCAT language in the bill.
I know that some of the House members have heard our concerns because there has been a delay on getting HB 859 – Florida Tax Credit Scholarship on the House agenda. A few of the members have some questions about the FCAT language in the bill, but have not heard from enough people who oppose the language yet.
I know that everyone is very busy, but we do have a small window of time to encourage the House Education Committee members to amend the FCAT language out of HB 859. I have seen many pilot programs and voluntary measures, in a VERY short time, become mandatory.
I have worked very hard on your behalf to keep the FCAT language out of HB 859. I have met with Rep. Corcoran, Rep Atkins, Rep Stargel, and others, but now is the time to flood key members of the Ed. Committee and the Sponsor with calls. If you don’t get calls into the committee, the FCAT most likely will become part of the bill.
YOUR FREEDOM TO FOLLOW YOUR OWN CURRICULUM is at stake here. if the FCAT becomes mandatory, there is no turning back. YOU MUST ACT!!!! The FCAT will lead to the End of Course exams which will be tied to the public school curriculum. You will be forced to teach the public school curriculum. I cannot say this more strongly.
YOU MUST CALL TODAY 2/23 OR 2/24!
The agenda for the House Education Committee will be set over the week-end. We need to call the following members of the committee Thurs, 2/23 or Friday, 2/24. Be sure that you get as many calls as possible into the members and especially Dr Proctor and Rep. Corcoran.
Read the bill at: http://www.myfloridahouse.
_h0859c2.docx&DocumentType=
The administration of the test is voluntary, but you have to read the attached CATO Institute article below to understand that the Obama Administration is imposing these core standards on states by threatening to withhold federal dollars for education if they don’t adopt core standards. Core standards leads to a national test based on the core curriculum. Once private schools are required to take the state assessments, home schooled students will not be left out or they will not be able to get into college.
DO NOT IDENTIFY YOURSELF AS A HOME EDUCATOR!!!!!!!!! SIMPLY SAY THAT YOU ARE A PARENT OR A CITIZEN.
Tell them that this provision will:
- Threaten the integrity of the FCAT and End of Course exams that Taxpayers have spent millions of dollars to develop.
- State assessments will require private schools to use the same curriculum as public schools. As a result, private schools will lose their independence and parents will lose their choice.
- This will place an unfunded mandate on the school districts at a time when funds are extremely limited. The staff analysis states that it is impossible to determine the cost to the public school for overseeing the administration of the test at private schools.
Ask them to amend the FCAT language out of HB 859.
Call:
Bill Sponsor: Rep. Richard Corcoran 850-488-8528
Proctor, William L. “Bill” [R] Chair 850-488-2977
Adkins, Janet H. [R] Vice Chair 850-488-6920
Coley, Marti [R] 850-488-2873
Fresen, Erik [R] 850-488-4092
O’Toole, H. Marlene [R] 850-488-5991
Stargel, Kelli [R] 850-488-2270
BACKGROUND INFORMATION TO BECOME BETTER INFORMED:
WND EXCLUSIVE
Obama imposing national school curriculum
‘The department has simply paid others to do that which it is forbidden’
by Bob Unruh
2/20/12
http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/
A new report compiled by several former Education Department insiders for the Pioneer Institute warns that the Obama administration is imposing a national school curriculum, even though the law doesn’t allow it, by making trades with districts seeking waivers from other program requirements.
“In three short years, the present administration has placed the nation on the road to a national curriculum,” said the authors of the reported called “The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers.”
“By leveraging funds through its Race to the Top fund and the Race to the Top Assessment Programs, the [Education] Department has accelerated the implementation of common standards in English language arts and mathematics and the development of common assessments based on those standards,” the authors said. “These standards and assessments will create content for state K-12 curriculum and instructional materials.
“The department has simply paid others to do that which it is forbidden to do,” the report continued. “This tactic should not inoculate the department against the curriculum prohibitions imposed by Congress.”
***READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE***
War Against the Core
CATO@LIBERTY
Posted by Neal McCluskey
February 16, 2012 @ 1:17 pm
With the release of a new Brookings Institution report today, and one from a consortium of groups last week, resistance to the national-standards offensive seems to be mounting. And even though almost every state in the union has adopted the Common Core, and few are likely to formally undo that, the war against the Core can still be won.
Today’s new front comes in the form of the Brookings Institution’s 2012 Brown Center Report on American Education, which includes three sections attacking rampant misuse of standards and tests. The first focuses on the Common Core, looking at the discernable impacts of state-level standards on achievement, and finding that (a) varying state standards have no meaningful correlation with achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and (b) there is much greater variation within states than between them, meaning national standards will do little to change big achievement gaps.
