Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Walker turns Education into Politics, Dismantles Common Core, wipes out Constitutional Power of State Superintendent...shh, don't mention ALEC.

National Treasurer of ALEC, State Sen. Leah Vukmir is about to kill Common Core in the hopes of replacing it with something so much better…whatever that is, + profits. 

And again, another major piece of reporting completely leaves out mentioning ALEC, its opposition to Common Core, its obsessive pursuit of school privatization, and the fact that its national treasurer is actually spearheading that dismantling.

State Journal reporter Molly Beck really didn't think it was important? Or that the public should know Vukmir’s motivation and conflict of interest? Who is she really representing? ALEC!!!

Suddenly, both the senate and assembly are about to pass bills that not just dismantles Common Core, but replaces it with one-size-fits-all big government bureaucratic meddling. And Scott Walker's been in on the planning:
The Board: Walker appoints 1, DPI’s Tony Evers appoints 1 = advantage 0

The Committee: Walker picks 5 members, Evers picks 4 members, Senate picks 2, the Assembly picks 2 = Walker advantage +1
The Committee subcommittee: That board would create subcommittees to write each standard, which could include non-voting education experts to advise the process.
Here come the big government bureaucrats, the good conservative kind: Let's neutralize the Constitutional duties of the state superintendent of public instruction:   
The proposed legislation also would allow DPI to review or revise the resulting standards recommended by the board. The revisions would then be sent to the legislative council and then sent for approval to the legislature’s Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, comprised of six Republican and four Democratic lawmakers, of which Vukmir is co-chairwoman.
Walker advantage +2.

Get ready for it…
If the committee rejects the standards containing DPI’s revisions, then the original recommended standards — as written before DPI’s review — would be sent to the full Legislature for a vote.
Voila'! DPI revisions disappear with a little political ALEC magic. A truly jaw dropping political takeover of education by low information tea party “scholars.”
State Superintendent Tony Evers said Tuesday this proposal to set up a process to replace Common Core is “wholly unacceptable” and would politicize the process of writing standards for education in Wisconsin. He said if the bill is approved, education standards could be developed on the floor of the Legislature instead of by experts. “Frankly, I can’t believe that this is what the citizens of Wisconsin want — that legislators are going to be writing standards. “There’s an effort to outnumber me, which seems odd, and then it just throws it into a political arena and has people writing standards that don’t have a clue.”
According to Vukmir’s spokesperson, Evers has nothing to worry about, if he doesn't make any "politicized" changes, adding:
“I think it really only politicizes it if the state superintendent decides to grossly reject what the board comes up with. The only time the legislature is going to act is if the superintendent says, ‘You know what, we are going to go in a completely different direction.’ ”

See, what could go wrong. ALEC has all the answers. 

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