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HCDE Declares War on Texas Tax Payers

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Since the video surfaced of HCDE’s superintendent outlining his battle plan AGAINST the taxpayers, Texans deserve to know exactly who declared war on them….

It is the two obsolete county school boards left over from 100 years ago when counties operated Texas public schools:

1. Dallas County School TrusteesdbaDCS,Texserve
2. Harris County School TrusteesdbaHCDE,Choice Partners

All other counties in Texas quit electing County School Trustees after all their students moved to Independent School Districts.

But these two dinosaurs have refused to close.
They continue to operate and tax under a loophole (TEC 11.301) even after the laws governing county schools were repealed in 1995.
The archaic 1930s county school property tax they still collect is called the “equalization tax.“ It was supposed to be used for the public schools in the county. Instead, they use most of it for themselves.
Why should the average Texan care?
Because in recent years, these two have developed a new “Texas government business model.”
 They use public funds from property taxes, fees and bonds to start-up, purchase, and/or operate business enterprises –
everything from cloud computing to charter bus services.
They aren’t limiting these business enterprises to their own counties. They are selling “services” across the US.
And…because both are actually leftover “county school districts”…. their 3000+ employees qualify for the Texas Teacher Retirement System.
That means the State taxpayers are responsible for providing their employees LIFETIME benefits, as if they were teachers, even when their work has nothing to do with public education – like storing records for the City of Houston or chartering buses for church trips.

If the Legislature allows these tax exempt subsidized business operations to continue, they will be sanctioning public debt to purchase private companies, and using public funds to supplement government owned businesses.

Government businesses which can put private sector companies out of business, and their private sector employees out of work.

In other words, taxpayers are at war with subsidized public sector, socialistic businesses that are working to undermine our capitalist system.

If you want to join in the battle, you can contact your Texas State Representative and Senator and let them know you expect them to support a bill to close the two remaining county school boards.

You can find who represents you: here 
Note:
You can view the Texas Senate Education Committee Hearing held on 8/3/16 when some of their business practices are discussed here. It was a long hearing, but very informative.  (start at 4:28:57)
Colleen Vera
colleen@TexasTrashTalk.com
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School District Needs and Wants

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needs and wants

Later this year, the Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments from attorneys representing over 600 Texas school districts who claim they cannot properly educate Texas school children because the State does not provide enough money.

As a retired teacher who taught in 4 Texas public school districts over 30 years, I know first-hand that “money” does not equal “learning.”

Yet, Texas School Boards and Superintendents seem to always be screaming that the answer to low performing schools is more tax dollars.

Some offer complex explanations of how items from testing requirements to unfunded mandates drain the districts’ budgets – so much so – that hiring classroom teachers only occurs if funds are left over.

But could there be a much simpler explanation?

Something as basic as “needs vs wants”?

Did Lt Governor Patrick  hit the nail on the head when he was quoted as saying:

“I am proud of the Texas Senate for uniting to produce a conservative, responsible, state budget that will sufficiently fund our state’s needs over the next biennium, while providing $3.8 billion in necessary tax relief to the businesses and property owners of Texas.”  The Texas Senate figured a way to fund the “needs” of Texans and cut taxes. Why can’t 600+ Texas school districts figure it out?

Look closer at Patrick’s statement. Notice the two words: conservative and needs.

The Texas Senate budgeted for the “needs” of Texans, NOT for the “wants” of every Legislator or school superintendent.

That is the true fiscal difference between liberals and conservatives.

Conservatives believe taxpayer  money should only be collected for “needs” that only government can provide, (roads, schools, military, etc.) while liberals believe they are ENTITLED to taxpayers supplying their “wants” (day care, health care, cell phones, etc.)

But so many education leaders are “liberals” these days,  that often student “needs” and district “wants” are  purposely mingled.

To prove the point, I tried a little experiment: comparing the spending habits of two public officials – a conservative who believes taxpayers should only fund the “needs” of government vs a liberal who believes taxpayers should be paying more to provide for “wants.”

I selected two public officials from my area who were both new to their offices –

                    Dan Patrick     

      Texas Lt Governor

                         

Took office  1/13/2015 

and

James Colbert     

School Superintendent 

Harris County

                              

Took Office 12/1/14 

I filed public information requests to find out how each official had spent public funds on “wants” vs “needs” from 1/1/15 thru 6/1/15.

Was there a significant difference? I will let you decide.

First – Office Needs

Both men were provided the same fully furnished office space their predecessors had used.

Conservative (Patrick)The CapitalBuilding required the office be repainted between occupants. Furniture wasselected from current inventory. Nothing was purchased for redecorating his office.

Liberal (Colbert) – Hired a decorator and went shopping with the taxpayers’ money. Chose the new, modern style furnishings complete with a custom refrigerator. Gave the previous furnishingsto his newly hired assistant, Jimmy Wynn, for use in his new office.

 

Conservative Liberal

Lt Governor

School Superintendent
Desk                                        2,998.21

Serving Cart                           2,548.08

Custom Refrigerator             1,971.74

Conference Table                 4,267.82

End Tables(3)                       4,509.31

Executive Chair                       966.46

Conference Chairs (6)        3,002.16

Guest Chairs (2)                   1,837.29

Sofa                                         1,857.02

Board Room Seating(10)   3,823.50

Board Room Buffet             1,697.06

Board Room Cart                2,423.01

Shutters                                 6,375.00

Picture(1)/Plants(3)           1,500.00

Chrome Coat Rack                 315.00

Freight                                   1,175.95

Installation                          2,732.00

Design Fee                              850.00

New Wall Paper                  2,475.00

New Lighting                       3,193.00

 

Total   $   0.00

 

Total    $  50,517.61

 

 

Second – Salary

Conservative (Patrick) – 2nd most powerful person
in the State.

Liberal (Colbert) – Oversees approximately
1,000 employees

Conservative

Liberal

Lt Governor

School Superintendent

$ 600 per month

$ 16,250 per month

 

Fourth – Gov’t Issued Credit Card

Conservative (Patrick) – The Senate does not

issue credit cards.

Liberal (Colbert) – School district credit card.

Charged for travel; taking board members, district employees, consultants and vendors out for meals; technology supplies.

 

Conservative Liberal
Lt Governor School Superintendent
None

 

School District MasterCard

 

Chilosos’s Taco House                  20.75

Best Buy                                         324.95

Shady Grove                                   38.48

Schlotzsky’s                                     12.19

Reale’s Pizza                                   66.77

Courtyard by Marriott                769.88

Champions Restaurant                 24.65

Shade Houston                               56.25

Laurenzo’s Grille Dello                 44.62

Laurenzo’s Grille Dello                 53.19

Capital Visitor Parking                   8.00

Lola Houston                                 20.52

Maggiano’s Houston                    69.26

Chick-Fil-A Houston                    10.15

Rudy’s Country Store                     8.15

Reale’s Pizza                                   10.97

Green Mesquite BBQ                    16.33

Marriott Austin                             26.82

Marriott Austin                             25.82

Marriott Austin                           553.61

Babin’s Katy                                   42.68

Chick-Fil-A Houston                    13.85

Shady Grove                                   17.56

Schlotzsky’s                                    12.19

Capital Grill                                    11.14

Shade Houston                             44.97

Shade Houston                             37.48

Embassy Suites Austin               20.00

 

Total              0.00       Total                    2,361.23

Is there really a difference in the way liberals and conservatives spend public dollars?

This simple experiment seems to show there is.

Do taxpayers work hard to pay their school district taxes because the superintendent “wants”  a custom refrigerator for his office?

Do taxpayers work hard to pay their school district taxes because the superintendent “wants” to use his school district credit card to dine out with his assistants?

 

Is a school superintendent ENTITLED to plush office furnishings and a tax funded expense account?

That is for you to decide.

But the real  multi-billion dollar question is:

If the 600+ school districts which are suing the taxpayers for more money would budget as the Texas Senate did – fund “needs” and leave out the “wants” – would they have enough money to educate our kids?

They won’t know unless they try.

Note:

If you would like to let Lt Governor Patrick know how much you appreciate his respect for our hard earned tax dollars, you may contact his comment line at 512-463-5342 or  email:  LTGConstituent.Affairs@ltgov.state.tx.us

If you would like to let Superintendent Colbert know what you think of his spending habits with public funds, you may contact him at 713-696-0715 or email:  jcolbert@hcde-texas.org

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Harris County Department of Education Helping Turn Texas Blue??

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HCDE

On May 19, 2014 I filed a simple request for public information –

to view the emails (from a 6 week period) of John Sawyer, the now former Superintendent ofthe Harris County Schools (aka-HCDE.)

All I really wanted was an outline of the day to day activities of HCDE. Instead, I got an outline of how HCDE is using our tax dollars to influence elections.

The first email attachment to raise my concern was sent on 2/26/14 from the HCDE Board President, Angie Chesnut, to George H Scott.  Scott is a media/public policy consultant who writes a blog entitled “George Scott Reports.”

George Scott’s emails to Sawyer give you a glimpse of his work history. One reads:

“…In the meantime,

I just helped Alton’s school board candidates tea party email

win a clean sweep by dumping on the idiots

from the TEA Party… “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 President Chesnut’s email to Scott concerning the HCDE Republican primary  is below:

tea party email 2

Chesnut ends her email with:

 “George, my request is that you help get the word out to your readers to vote for Dianne Williams and RW Bray for the HCDE Board of Trustees.   Please let me know if I can help in any way.   Thank you for all you have already done.” 

(Note: Chesnut ran for office as a Republican; yet she supports expanding government spending, government programs such as Head Start, government pre-k, government after school care, etc;  Wolfe and Summers positions were actually the more conservative in the race. They both questioned how HCDE uses tax dollars. They both won their primaries.)

Records show Scott has received funds numerous times from HCDE.

tea party 3

As a matter of fact, HCDE’s response to an open records request to view publications paid for by HCDE in 2013, included blog posts written by George H Scott. Some were posts critical of the Harris County Appraisal District and the rest were stories flattering to HCDE.

It does appear, however, that Scott did not have a contract tea party 4

with HCDE at the time of Chesnut’s request.

Emails show Scott did submit a new proposal to HCDE for more consulting work by May.

If Chesnut had asked a blogger who did not contract with HCDE, there would not be an issue.

But, for an elected official, who casts votes on government contacts, to ask an off-on-again contractor to “help” her influence the outcome of the Republican primary election of her own board is, to say the least, inappropriate.

Lack of ethics to influence elections is one thing. Use of public employees and public funds is a whole different ballgame.

The following email shows:

HCDE Board’s Executive Assistant setting up a conference call

for 9:00am on 5/12/14 between the HCDE Superintendent, two

HCDE paid consultants, an addressee redacted by HCDE, and

two paid staffers for the Wendy Davis for Governor Campaign.

Angie Chesnut (R), the HCDE Board President, is listed as  “optional.”

 

number 5

It appears the call took place on schedule because an email was sent3 hours later from HCDE Board member Diane Trautman (D) to Wendy Davis Campaign staffer, RoyceBrooks, stating,

“I enjoyed meeting you this morning on our conference call.” image 6

She also adds,

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with…”

She attached her own quarterly newsletter which ended with:

Pd. Pol. Adv. By the Diane Trautman Campaign…”

 

image 7

If the call had been to Sen. Wendy Davis in her capacity as a State Senator, there would not be an issue.

If the call had been on their personal time using their personal phone systems,  there would not be an issue.

But, the taxpayers paying for the facilities, the phone and emails systems, the salary to set up the call, as well as the salaries and consulting fees for HCDE to participate in a call with the campaign of the Democrat candidate for governor is, to say the least, HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE.

Texas Statute does not allow the use of school district facilities and/or personnel to support candidates or parties.

(Note: When the Legislature  repealed the laws governing county schools, it allowed Harris County to remain open under the old laws plus any current laws governing ISDs. TEC 11.301)

On 3/27/14 HCDE’s  Education Foundation Board of Directors held their meeting at the HCDE Administration Building, a building supported completely with public funds.

HCDE’s Education Foundation is registered with the

IRS as a 501(c)(3).

In their Articles of Incorporation filed with the Texas Secretary of State the Foundation claims:

The corporation is organized exclusively for educational

purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3)

of the Internal revenue Code

 

 

 

…the corporation shall not participate in or intervene in

(including the publishing or distribution of statements)

any political campaign of any candidate for public office

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet, the review of emails shows that meeting minutes were distributed using HCDE’s email system which included the following statement on page #3:

“4. The primary elections are over and the two candidates for HCDE Trustee positions I would ask you to endorse and vote for in the upcoming November election are Debra Kerner, current HCDE board vice president and Melissa Noriega, former Houston city councilwomen and administrator at HISD. The opponents for both of these women support the abolishment of HCDE, Michael Wolfe and Don Sumners.”

(Note: the candidates the foundation asked members to endorse and vote for are both Democrats. Both opponents are Republicans.)

   

 

In this case, not only did taxpayers pay for the facilities to hold the meeting and the email system to distribute the Democrat candidate endorsements, this year HCDE Board of Trustees donated $202,107 of our tax dollars to the Foundation just to fund the position of Director as well as to provide his office facilities in the HCDE Administration Building.

 

Texas Statute also does not allow school district email systems or other public funds to be used for political advertising.

IRS rules do not allow a 501(c)(3) to endorse candidates.

HCDE’s Foundation’s charter does not allow them to participate in publishing or distributing statements relating to campaigns.



In a quick look at the alphabetical list of Directors/Members of the Board on the Foundation website, the first name you see is Judge Eric Andell, Senior Justice, First Court of Appeals. This makes one question why a Senior Justice didn’t stop the Foundation from breaking the rules.

But a google search might explain it. In 2005. The Houston Chronicle reported the following:

“Former judge Eric Andell of Houston was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $5,000 Friday after pleading guilty to charges that related to cheating taxpayers out of thousands of dollars in bogus expenses charged to the federal government while he served as a top official in the U.S. Department of Education.”

A check of current judges serving the Texas Appellate Courts does not list Eric Andell.

Makes me wonder what else on the Foundation website might be questionable, or at least, slightly inaccurate.

Note: The Foundation just changed its website removing Judge Andell from their Director’s list. That was fast! On the left you will see the screen shot I took on 9/13/14. On the right you will see the page today.

               On 9/13/14           On 9/20/14

 

Pat Strong, who participated in the conference call with the Wendy Davis Campaign, is owner of Strong Strategies. HCDE pays her $82,000 per year (plus expenses) to serve as one of their many political consultants. She oversees the HCDE Board’s “government relations” committee. Her website lists some of the politicians she has worked for:

  • Congressman Ken Bentsen (D)
  • Governor Ann Richards (D)
  • Clinton/Gore (D)
  • Democratic National Committee
  • Vince Ryan (D)
  • Congressman Al Green (D)
  • Senator Rodney Ellis (D)
  • Melissa Noriega (D)  – current candidate for HCDE Board

Her HCDE duties also include keeping the board “informed” on pressing  issues. The email review shows the type of “information” she sends to the HCDE Board in their weekly packet as well as the personal comments she writes in the upper right hand corners. Two examples are below.

Article from: The Texas Observer Article from: The Texas Observer

Should taxpayers really be paying for a political consultant to forward a story to a school board that reads…..?

“…We love Wendy Davis. You love Wendy Davis. We and you want to do very sexy things to Wendy Davis, even the straight chicks…”

Reviewing all these emails made me very curious as to what

Pat Strong reports to the HCDE Board Government Relations

Committee. So when HCDE posted a public meeting of the committee

on their website for 11:00 am on 9/16/14, I attended.

I arrived a few minutes early with my cell phone camera fully charged. Pat Strong (lady on the left with the white hair) was already seated with her report ready to present. At 11:00,  President Angie Chesnut opened the meeting.
(Note: The following is an approximate transcription. Some was difficult to understand.)

Chesnut: Good morning everyone. Well, I guess the meeting is now in order. What…It is not a meeting. (difficult to understand) That’s right. It is a committee meeting.

Board Attorney: (something I can’t make out about not having a quorum.)

Chesnut:  Oh true. So, with no further ado, let’s get started with Pat giving us an update on different things that have happened.

Board Attorney: (something I can’t make out)

Chesnut: Oh, since this is not an open meeting, I am going to have to ask you to leave Ms Vera, if you don’t mind. It is a closed committee meeting.

Board Attorney: It is not a meeting under the Open Meetings Act since there is no quorum.

Chesnut:  It is not a posted meeting.

I complied.

Watch the short video.

AFTER Pat Strong completed her report, President Chesnut changed her mind and decided the public could view the rest of the committee meeting, even though they still did not have a quorum. By the end of the committee meeting, a board quorum was present.

You may watch the video of the meeting after Pat Strong was finished with her report and I was allowed to re-enter the room: here

Was Chesnut accurate when she stated, “This is not a posted meeting?”

In a quick check of the HCDE website, under Board Agendas, you will find the official posting of the meeting with Angie Chesnut’s signature.

Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

What was in Pat Strong’s report to the committee that President Chesnut felt the need to hide from the public? I may never know.

But I do know that if this was a government entity using government funds and a 501(c)(3) to promote conservative Republican candidates and issues, the IRS would remove their tax exemption immediately and I’d bet our County Attorney would order an investigation.

But these government funds and the 501(c)(3) are being used to support liberal Democrat candidates and issues, so I won’t hold my breath waiting for any investigation.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s daughter, Erica Lee Carter, is a current HCDE Board Trustee so I don’t expect to see any action from the IRS.
In his most recent campaign financial report, our County Attorney, Vince Ryan (D) lists payments to Pat Strong for “fundraising and compliance services” so I don’t foresee any action coming from that office either.

 

It’s stunning to me that a cursory review of emails turned up so many examples of apparent violations of state and federal statutes. I will certainly dig deeper before drawing any final conclusions.
But the fact that all this goes on right
under the nose of a Board President
who is a self-proclaimed

“conservative Republican”

in my opinion, is nothing short of shameful.

Absolutely shameful.

Arne Duncan and Angie Chesnut

If you agree, you may contact HCDE Board President Angie Chesnut at:  achesnut@hcde-texas.org

Colleen Vera

www.texastrashtalk.com

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CSCOPE FOR BABIES & DATA MINING

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CSCOPE-for-Babies[5]

       “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” ~Lenin 

Texas Trash Talk
by Colleen Vera

Many thought that when TESCCC promised to remove lesson plans from CSCOPE the children of Texas were safe – for now.

The plan by the liberals to bypass our Governor and State Board of Education  in order to slip Federal Common Core Standards into Texas schools through the backdoor – secretly using public funds hidden within a private non-profit corporation – had been uncovered, investigated and thwarted.

For the time being, Texas kids were safe from Bill Ayers and Linda Darling Hammond. Lessons designed to brainwash Texas kids against Capitalism, American Exceptionalism,  Christianity, etc. were gone.  Texas teachers were no longer forced to teach all kids the same CSCOPE lessons on the same day in the exact same way.

All was well. Right?

I am sorry to report that a more sinister web is now being quickly spun as you read. A plan that includes:

 

  • Implementing Obama’s new pre-K plan to
  • Use local Harris County tax dollars to fund a
  • Private non-profit corporation to
  • Grab Harris County kids from birth to 4
  • Including HOME VISITS…. then
  • Gradually expand statewide until the
  • State has control of all day care programs
  • Under Federal pre-school Common Core standards.

Thus leading to the ultimate utopia for liberals – government control of child rearing – hidden behind the guise of “kindergarten readiness.”

This is all being planned secretly behind closed doors at the Harris County Department of Education.(HCDE)

What makes it worse is that the HCDE  Board President, Angie Chesnut143-Chestnut_09.jpg  is supposed to be a Republican. She even serves as Vice President  of the Kingwood Area Republican Women – who list CSCOPE as a “hot topic” on their website.

Yet Ms Chesnut is allowing each board member to meet privately with the team planning Obama’s Pre-K Common Core program so they can gain information and ask questions WITHOUT having to discuss the plan in front of the public in an open meeting.

I guess she has never read the “Republican Philosophy” document nor the “Republican vs Democrat” beliefs page posted by her own club.

More troubling is that at the HCDE meeting to  replace a resigning board member, Ms. Chesnut threw out board policy, introduced a new Democrat to the list of board candidates, and proceeded to vote with the Democrats to approve the new candidate –  thus guaranteeing a Democrat majority – and the passage of Obama’s Pre-K Common Core plan.

But thanks to the one true Republican on the HCDE Board, Kay Smith, the public is no longer being kept in the dark about the plan. She shared it with me so I could share it with Texas.

I have scanned the documents outlining the program and posted them below:

angie 18 angie 20

Some will say I can’t call this “CSCOPE for Babies” because a computer product is not being sold. But the  similarities of this plan to CSCOPE are too remarkable to be a coincidence.

Three examples from their business models are:

  • Just as CSCOPE uses public funds to run a private non-profit corporation to hide its operations from the public, HCDE plans to more than double its tax rate to raise $24-30 million per year and GIVE IT via contract to a start-up non-profit to be called “Harris County School Readiness Corporation (HCSRC)” to operate the program.
  • Just as CSCOPE started as a simple service to local school districts and spread to over 800 districts statewide with plans of expanding out of state, HCSRC plans to start in Harris County with “on-line resources, parenting classes and in-home visitations” and grow to create “ a single state entity” to “GOVERN ALL early childhood education functions.”
  • Just as the legality of CSCOPE’s actions were suspect, the legality of Harris County School Trustees collecting the Equalization Tax to give to a private non-profit corporation instead of distributing the funds directly to the ISDs  as dictated by Texas Education Code 18.14, is highly questionable.

But the most remarkable similarities are in the people connected to this program.

James J Heckman from the University of Chicagowho was an advisor to President Obama’s 2008 campaign, provides the evaluation claiming this program will “strengthen Texas’s economy.”

The link in his material to www.all4ed.org  shows the organization to be theAlliance for Excellent Education who just happens to have Linda Darling Hammond (of CSCOPE fame) on their board. Like Heckman, Hammond served as President Obama’s education advisor during his 2008 campaign.

chesnut 11

Even though her own charter school at Stanford failed academically, Bill Ayres thought so highly of Ms. Hammond that he posted a petition on MoveOn.org to have her named as Secretary of Education.

angie16

Some other  Alliance Board members of interest are:

  • Vijay Ravindran who was the chief technology officer of Catalist LLC—a  political technology company started with $1 million from George Soros that built a national progressive voter database of  more than 260 million people. During the 2008 election, Catalist worked with ninety progressive organizations, including Planned Parenthood, SEIU,  and the Obama presidential campaign, to name a few.
  • Daniel Leeds is founder and chair of Education Voters of America,the Education Funders Strategy Group, and the Alliance for Excellent Education, for which he serves as chair of its governing board. Mr. Leeds is also president of Fulcrum Investments LLC.

The Alliance was a founding partner in the Data Quality Campaign to develop education data systems in every state to “improve student achievement.”CSCOPE is a data mining program.

The Alliance partners with Learning Forward to provide standards training.

Learning Forward published one of Hammonds reports for SCOPE –Stanford Center for Opportunity in Education.

ESCs link to the Alliance and to Learning Forward on their websites.

Presenting for Learning Forward Texas in June and July is Ervin Knezek  (ofCSCOPE fame –) who now owns his own company called lead4ward.  Currently working for him are:

angie 12

Note: As a retired teacher I find it odd that Learning Forward Texas, an organization that specializes in training educators, has no training programs listed on their calendar for the entire summer – the busiest season for teacher workshops.

The brochure produced to promote this new program in Harris County lists the board members of the Texas Gulf Coast School Readiness Committee on the last page.

The Chair of the committee, Stephen M Kaufman, is the Managing Director ofFulcrum Investments LLC  whose President just happens to be the founder and chair of the Alliance for Excellent Education, Education Voters of America and the Education Funders Strategy Group.

Corporation wiki lists Mr. Kaufman as the President of the Rauch Foundationwhich focuses on similar education issues on Long Island, NY. The small program there appears to be the model for what they want to do in Texas.

And what a coincidence that it is all right in step with President Obama’s newPre-K Initiative.

angie 14

This includes  national standards for preschool – thus the phrase “Common Core for Babies.” Then there is the plan to grow this Harris County program into a statewide government entity. A look at Colorado shows us what we have to look forward to if we allow this to move forward.

“Legislators in Colorado …  passed an additional 96 pages of regulations in attempt to reduce regulations for preschools. These new laws banned whole milk for preschoolers, require a certain percentage of “ethnic dolls” in dollhouses, and mandates state reports of how many crayons per child the daycare provider offers. And preschools like Montessori have to get state board approvals to operate in Colorado if they use wooden stools or puzzles, because these are just too much of a safety risk.”                                                          Karin Piper

But I think the scariest part of this plan is the Home Visitation Programwhich provides regular home visits to families from pregnancy through the child’s second birthday, ”intended to promote good health and parenting practices.”

It is bad enough when the bureaucrats over-regulate schools and businesses, but when they have the right to enter your home and regulate how you care for yourself and your children, they have crossed the line.

This program may not be a computer only product, but it is a control mechanism and data mining process just like CSCOPE.

It is the Federal government trying to sneak in the back door just as they tried with CSCOPE, but this time they have come for our babies.

We are kicking them out of our ISDs and now we need to make sure we keep them out of our pre-schools and our homes.

What you can do?

Because Angie Chesnut sold out the HCDE Board to the Democrats, contacting HCDE is a waste of time.

This will need to be stopped in Austin.

You can contact:

  • Senator Patrick, Chair of the Senate Education Committee

    (512) 463-0107 … email

  • Rep. Aycock, Chair of the House Education Committee

   (512) 463-0684 … email

Ask them to investigate the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) and stop their plan to bring the federal pre-k “Common Core for babies” program in the back door by funding a private non-profit corporation with equalization tax dollars.

Note: For those who don’t know what HCDE is, it is the assumed name of the Harris County School Trustees.  Years ago, county boards ran public schools in Texas. When Texas moved to ISDs, every county but two, Harris and Dallas, closed their county boards when they no longer had schools to run.

Harris County still elects County School Trustees who  still have the authority to collect a countywide education property tax (called the equalization tax) almost 50 years after all students in Harris County moved out of the countywide school system and into ISDs. It is the only school board in Texas elected by Party.  You can read more here.

Colleen Vera
colleen@TexasTrashTalk.com

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As you know, Linda Darlng-Hammond is tied to Columbia Teachers’ College. Yes, the data mining that will be utilized if HB 2103 is signed into law right here in Texas is enough to make any person scared, and the national database under Common Core Standards is a similar entity.  All the data from 20 years back that is contained in PEIMS, in the TEA, in the Texas Higher Education Commission, and in the Texas Workforce Commission will be subject to sharing with government and private entities even  outside Texas. From this data, the Obama administration will be able to screen out people who have a freckle on their left earlobe! – Donna Garner

 

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