South Dakota Dept of Ed misrepresented Jim Bolin's HB1153 to a legislative committee

Representative Jim Bolin presented the House Education on Wednesday HB1153 which says:

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 13-3-48, the Department of Education may not participate in the development of or present to the Board of Education any standards for the subject of history that the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a state-led effort launched by state leaders through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers, may propose, and the Board of Education may not adopt any such history standards.

Cory Heidelberger provides an accurate analysis of the opposition from the Department of Education, Wade Pogeny:

There are no history standards to warrant concern. The states aren’t working on common history standards. As Pogany’s mom always said, “Never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.”

We already have checks and balances in the process to allow the debate Bolin wants over history standards.

It’s bad policy to tie hands of state board of education. To tell the Board of Education they can’t even participate in discussions about standards actually erodes local control. It prevents the board from holding hearings and seeking public input to empower teachers and citizens.

It’s bad policy to write statutes about a problem that doesn’t exist. (Actually, Wade, I think you already covered this in point #1.)

The "trouble" with the first point is that the English component of Common Core Standards does include history. If you got to the South Dakota Board of Education web site that deals with the Common Core Standards and click on the link to the pdf file containing the Common Core Standards - English Language Arts, you will see that those Standards include "English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects". This also counters Pogeny's 4th point.

And Pogeny's point that local control is represented by the Board of Education is false. Local control is parents and the school board they elect, not the state board who is appointed by the Governor.

And what the State Board of Education did by adopting these Common Core Standards violated local control by accepting standards thate are "internationally benchmarked". You will find that on page 3of the pdf file in the 3rd paragraph. Here is more on what "internationally benchmarked" means:

In fact, as explained by Professor Allen Quist, the only comprehensive "internationally benchmarked" standards are those produced by the UN's educational and cultural arm UNESCO and the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO).  These standards will promote the documents and principles of the United Nations over those of the United States:

American schools used to teach the fundamental values of the United States--including the inalienable, God-given rights of life, liberty and property, as guaranteed by our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Not any more. Now our students will be indoctrinated in the UN's definition of human rights. As clarified by the UN's UDHR [Universal Declaration of Human Rights], our rights now may not "be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations" (Art 29:3). Our children will be taught that they have only those rights the UN says they have.

The UNESCO standards also include the UN's Earth Charter, which further defines internationally benchmarked standards. The Charter says these standards must entail what it calls "sustainability education" (Art 14:b). The Charter explains that "sustainability education" entails the "promotion of the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations" (Art. 10:a), nuclear disarmament (Art. 16:d), gay marriage (Art. 12:a), legalized abortion (Art. 7:e), adoption of an "international legally binding instrument on environment" (The way Forward), and indoctrination in pantheism (Art. 14d and Art. 16:f).

All of these harmful trends were accelerated under NCLB, but still there was the veneer of state developed and written standards and assessments. With RTTT, all veneer of state and local control of education will be gone.

Clearly the adoption of standards based "international benchmarks" is the exact opposite of local control.

By adopting Common Core Standards, the South Dakota State Board of Education has not only sold out South Dakota, but also has sold out America to the United Nations and the one-world ruling elite who control that international body. We must put a stop to any further actions that take us down this path. 

Jim Bolin's HB1153 is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation proposed during this session of the South Dakota legislature. Unfortunately, we have the executive branch providing misinformation to our legislators and we have a obligation as citizens to understand the truth and urge our legislators to do the right thing and support HB1153. This bill will be voted on Monday 2/7/2011 in the House Education Committee. Here is a link to the members of that committee who need to hear the truth from their constituents.

Comments

[Scott Fredericks]

Did you happen to READ the 'history' standards? IF you did, which I assume you didn't, you'd see that the standards are for social studies LITERACY, e.g., how to distinguish fact from opinion in the social studies area; how to read and analyze graphs, charts, and tables related to social science data, etc.

There are NO history or social studies CONTENT standards associated with the Common Core - SDDE didn't mislead anyone. Neither CCSSO nor NGA have any intent to develop social studies/history standards.

Get your facts straight.

And let me get this straight - you're bent out of shape because of the adoption of world class standards that raise the bar on student achievement and define what EVERY student needs to know to be successful in college and career - how can you be against that?

"Jim Bolin's HB1153 is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation proposed during this session of the South Dakota legislature". Seriously? He thinks the Common Core deals with English and Science (wrong, math) and manufactured a standards crisis when none exists.

[grudznick]

Did you testify, Mr. Sibson? I was told that you were almost superhumanly lobbying both the house and the senate this week, and I am glad you are in Pierre exposing the truth.