His Scary Federal Education “Choice” as a Civil Right, His Fake Repeal of Common Core, and His Phony Support of Homeschools Revealed.
Ted Cruz forces Common Core onto every private, religious, and homeschool in his proposed S 306 with Federal Choice (which is NO choice at all).
Explaining the Disastrous Impact of Ted Cruz’s S 306 and His Federal Choice.
• Common Core sets the stage for ALL children to be identified as “At-Risk” in public schools under Title I. This is now a given since the Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, was passed in December. ESSA was a bill sponsored by two establishment Republicans, Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Kline. A “schoolwide” Title I banner means that Common Core now covers the entire school, and every child will receive a blanket of supports, techniques, and interventions that will force every child into compliance to meet Common Core standards.
• Sen. Ted Cruz’s S 306 uses these Title I school-wide federal funds to identify and follow the child. S 306 expands “portable” funding to every child, which means they will take “public school choice” with them into any private or religious school. This means every child is “At-Risk or becoming At-Risk” of not meeting Common Core. This baggage then goes with the child into that private or religious school. This baggage includes psychological supports and interventions carried out by IDEA (Individual With Disabilitites Education Act), which is the Special Education behavioral conditioning for all students to meet Common Core non-academic standards.
• Sen. Ted Cruz’s S 306 Federal so-called “Choice” funds are “portable,” meaning a Title I child takes his/her funds with them to any school. The “portable” funds “follow the child.” This means that schools will no longer be funded as they have been in the past. Rather, children are funded. This eliminates zip codes as a destination for a better local school. “Equitable” funding means schools will “spread the Common Core wealth around” and that all schools must be the same.
• The “portable” funds following the child amount to a “micro-voucher” for every child. This is used as a backpack of funds which includes a per pupil expenditure so that every child receives an equal amount of money. An algorithm is designed by the Federal IES, Institute for Educational Science, to determine regional “equity.” Federal, state, and local funds combined are deposited into an education savings account, called an ESA, used for school tuition and Common Core services at any school or even online. The State decides what is qualified as Common Core and aligns all curriculum with Common Core. The State is the overseer of this federal financial assistance accountability. Thus “choice,” in essence, is no choice, just Common Core in any school for every child.
• Sen. Ted Cruz’s S 306 appears to eliminate the church/state controversy when the funds “follow the child.” The “portable” micro-vouchers are given to parents to use in any private and religious school that accept Title I children with their allotted micro-voucher in hand. Schools do not receive money from the government, but receive the money from parents. So it deceptively looks like parental freedom of “choice.” But it is not.
• Sen. Ted Cruz redefines a homeschool as a private school, thereby forcing homeschooled children to come under the federal Title I net which mandates Common Core. A homeschool can set up a micro-voucher ESA, education savings account, and collect the same federal, state, and local funds to use to teach their child/children Common Core. Or use an ESA in any public, charter, private, religious school, or online class which must align to Common Core.
• Sen. Ted Cruz eliminates the cap on ESA’s in order to accept ALL funds that mandate services AND support interventions to meet Common Core. These services and supports are used in order to make sure that every child’s personalized career pathway conforms to Common Core. The government micro-voucher, which becomes substantial by including ALL funds, are deposited into this Lifelong Learning ESA backpack. This wide array of funds is the carrot for parents to support what they think is Choice, but no one explains to parents that there is Common Core baggage attached to the funds. This personalized plan is NOT for your child to reach his/her potential, but only to acquire Common Core standards!
• Services, supports, and interventions are defined, funded and carried out under IDEA, special education. ALL children get the same Common Core poison including the controversial psychological/behavioral treatment. You see, Common Core measures and scores non-academic government-prescribed attitudes, values, beliefs, and dispositions. A student must meet these pre-determined psychological outcomes. Psych interventions are defined as: positive behavior intervention and supports, multi-tiered and school-wide tiered system of supports, response to intervention, early intervening supports, and universal design for learning. These are all mandated in federal legislation, the Republican establishment’s ESSA. Mental health psychological coding is a must for reimbursement of funding treatment.
• Sen. Ted Cruz changes 529 plans to accept all children from birth up to age 21, or the entire Common Core/Mental Health/Healthcare P-20 agenda. 529 plans are converted into Lifelong Learning micro-vouchers, deposited into ESA backpacks. Cruz’s Federal “Choice” will fund Common Core/Mental Health for ALL children. including free universal Pre-K, free federal “choice” in any elementary and secondary school, and 2 free years of community or vocational college. Lifelong Learning micro-voucher backpacks will extend the entire school life of a child until age 21. This mimics the same socialized education/healthcare proposal from President Obama’s State of the Union Address!
• THE DREADFUL IMPACT OF SEN. TED CRUZ’S CHOICE: Local taxes will no longer support your neighborhood local public school when “follow the child funding” is directed to multiple schools through so-called choice. What happens to your local public school where you have duly-elected representative school board members who are accountable to citizens in your district? This whole plan collapses the traditional public school and your elected school board. When your neighborhood public school goes financially bankrupt or Common Core bankrupt, your locally collected school taxes will be regionalized or redirected for a State takeover. Charter schools, that have no elected representative boards, were expanded in the federal education Reauthorization of ESEA (the ESSA) and replace “failing” public schools. State departments of education become more powerful. This is all playing into the false “abolishment of the US Department of Education” mantra which appeals to conservatives who don’t truly understand this insidious agenda.
• It gets worse. The entire Common Core/Mental Health agenda ties into ObamaCare for all children birth to age 21. All psychological services carried out by IDEA and rendered to children can be billed to Medicaid, where schools become providers for health and mental health services. Mental health codes follow every child, thus potentially adversely impacting your child’s future jobs, college, and licensing (including gun ownership).
• Under this plan ALL schools become chartered and accredited including private, religious, and homeschools, by the state charter authorizing agency which mandates Common Core accountability. Representative government is thereby dissolved. Your taxes no longer subsidize your local education. Education becomes nationalized, i.e. federalized. Parents are locked out. There is no choice.
• This is the SCARY “civil rights” Common Core agenda that Sen. Ted Cruz supports. He stated, “every child in America, regardless of race or ethnicity, wealth or zip code has the right to a quality education,” and his federal school choice amounts to federal control. This mandates the Common Core nightmare to every child in the United States.
Ted Cruz is an establishment insider.
2016 Anita Hoge – All Rights Reserved
