The Houston County Republican Women hosted a panel of legislators, Senator Donnie Chesteen, Rep Paul Lee, and Rep Jeff Sorrells. After the panel regaled the assembly with accomplishments all tied to money they have brought home to our area, including a new UAB associated dental school to be located in Dothan, more broadband, more roads, questions came from the assembled.
Concerned about the recent passage of the Numeracy Act, I asked why legislators pay attention to A+ and dismiss the efforts of the Eagle Forum. I pointed out to the legislators that the organization known as A+ showed up in the early 1990s promoting Goals 2000 (also known as Outcomes Based Education). Organizations like Eagle Forum fought Outcomes Based Education understanding its longterm goals. A+, powerful even then, won the day.
One of the legislators informed me that there was an Alabama State School Board that determined education. Yet, it was the legislature that passed Alabama's version of Goals 2000 promoted by A+. The law came into the Alabama Department of Education over the fax machine with David Hornbeck collating this document that was very similar to the Kentucky Education Reform Plan. Hornbeck and Hillary Clinton sat together on the board for the National Center on Education and the Economy.
Hornbeck edited a book entitled Human Capital and America's Future. Just so you understand, the Human Capital referred to here is our children.
The shift in education then was substantial. This legislation required a rewriting of the Bylaws of the Dothan City School Board. Those early Bylaws required sequential learning which means traditional skill upon skill education. Sequential learning was replaced with thematic education which means breaking the whole into the parts. Thirty years later we reap the whirlwind produced by that revolution in education throughout society.
The relevant sections of the statute (Goals 2000) read as follows:
Student achievement and citizenship.
(A) By the year 2000, all students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography, and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our Nation's modern economy....
Mathematics and science
(A) By the year 2000, United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1622&context=mjlr
None of that was achieved.
Since then we have had several more "reform" efforts to improve our schools with each requiring MORE MONEY to teach teachers how to better implement the "reforms" in Goals 2000. Common Core was the most recent and most radical. It remains in our schools though renamed. The purpose of Common Core was to make all schools across the nation immersed in the social justice agenda--to homogenize America.
Most recently A+ pushed the Numeracy Act passed by the Alabama legislature.
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FORMER STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER BETTY PETERS WRITES OF THE MOST RECENT LEGISLATIVE FOOLISHNESS FOR OUR SCHOOLS AND THE A+ INVOLVEMENT
Alabama Senate Bill 171, around fifty pages of gobbledy-gook entitled “The Alabama Numeracy Act,” passed overwhelmingly in the Senate; and a substitute bill is scheduled to be voted on today in the House. State Sen. Arthur Orr of Decatur was the sponsor of SB 171, and he and other bill supporters state the bill will not allow AL public schools to use curriculum standards known as “Common Core.” The big question for me and practically everyone I know is whether this bill is really just a very expensive and convoluted scheme to develop a new version of “Common Core” which we all know was later renamed “AL College & Career Readiness Standards.” State Rep. Terri Collins, also of Decatur, denied on a recent Capitol Journal program on AL Public TV that Alabama uses Common Core math.
On the other hand, except for Gov. Kay Ivey, all the Republican candidates for governor are on record opposing this bill. A recent article by Brandon Moseley of 1819 News reported that Tim James called for members of the AL legislature to vote against the AL Numeracy Act and that the legislation does not remove Common Core math from Alabama schools. Mr. Moseley talked with the other three candidates opposing the Governor--Lindy Blanchard, Dean Odle and Lew Burdette-- about the “controversial math education plan” and they all agreed with James. I was very favorably impressed with the comments of all four of them.
I know many people have wondered who wrote the bill for Sen. Orr. After serving on the state school board for 16 years, I had a hunch the author was someone with the A Plus Foundation, which I had observed for years had been a strong advocate for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The recent 1819 News article about the Numeracy Act said, “The corporate backed A+ Education Partnership has been lobbying legislators to vote in favor of SB 171.” Mark Dixon, one of the members of Gov. Bob Riley’s administration, now heads A+. At Gov. Riley’s last state school board meeting (Nov. 2010) the Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted, with only two negative votes by Stephanie Bell and myself. I think it’s likely that Mr. Dixon either wrote the bill or had someone else at A+ do so. After all, they have consistently fought for Common Core and other experimental math programs. And I’d be willing to bet that if this bill passes the house and is signed by the governor, we’ll continue to have non-traditional math taught in AL public schools and our students will continue to be at the bottom of the rankings. And that’s especially sad since neither the children nor their parents are at fault. It’s what and how they are taught that is the problem.
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Don't tell us the legislature doesn't get involved in education.
Representative Jeff Sorrells informed the group that he did NOT VOTE FOR THE NUMERACY ACT. BUT Paul Lee and Donnie Chastain did. So now those gentlemen are on record for enabling a continuation of what has failed our children, for producing those children who have made Alabama 52nd in education, behind Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
I asked why we cannot go back before we were lured down the garden path by organizations like A+ that still promotes poor education.
I wonder at the fact that this elected official does not seek to defend the few areas of preserving independence of education and the pursuit of free thought that evade the WOKE virus of public education. These private schools use traditional methods to teach children. Yet, he would rather rail against them as the cause of the poor performance of public schools.
I remind these legislators that what has been legislated in can be legislated out. The burden is on the shoulders of our elected officials.
