Posted on 01/20/2016 3:39:38 PM PST by Sopater
Parents, beware â Big Brother is coming for your kids. Buried deep inside the mammoth âbipartisanâ so-called âeducationâ legislation approved last month, dubbed the âEvery Student Succeeds Actâ (ESSA), is a radical expansion of what the statute refers to as âfull-service community schools.â The controversial institutions, more accurately described as parental replacement centers, seek to oversee every aspect of your child's life, ranging from their âmental healthâ and âwell beingâ to nutrition and even dentistry. You are in the crosshairs, too, as the Obama administration defines parents as âequal partnersâ in child rearing. And those are just some of the many unconstitutional provisions in the bill and beyond that aim to turn government schools into parents, and parents into pariahs.
In short, an increasingly out-of-control Uncle Sam â with support from the leadership of both major political parties â wants to raise your child. And with the support of virtually every education-related special interest group you can think of, the latest federal education statute, passed by the GOP Congress and cheerfully signed as a âmiracleâ by Obama last month, is among the primary means by which the feds plan to further undermine and attack your role as parents. The implications of the accelerating assaults on families, parental rights, constitutionally limited government, the future of America's children, and the future of the nation itself cannot be overstated.
Consider, for example, that these community schools are supposed to provide what the legislation refers to as âpipeline services.â The statute defines it like this: âThe term âpipeline servicesâ means a continuum of coordinated supports, services, and opportunities for children from birth through entry into and success in post-secondary education, and career attainment.â Those âservicesâ must include, at a minimum: âearly childhood education;â school and out-of-school programs and âstrategiesâ; support for children's âtransitions"; family âsupports,â including âat homeâ; career counseling; âSocial, health, nutrition, and mental health services and supportsâ; âcrime prevention and rehabilitation programsâ; and much more. In other words, everything that families once provided for children will become the responsibility of âcommunity schools.â All that is missing now is hugs and bedtime stories from Big Brother.
Students will not be the only ones targeted, however. In a section dealing with what the statute describes as âpromise neighborhoodsâ targeted for additional federally funded âservices,â the statute calls for the targeting of everyone with these âpipeline services.â Bureaucrats and institutions, including government schools funded under the scheme, will be charged with providing âsocial, health, nutrition, and mental health services and supports, for children, family members, and community members.â Family members and community members, in other words, will be targeted for government intervention, up to and including âmental health services.â That means you. Language calling for home visitations appears to have been removed from the bill prior to final passage, but that hardly means it will not be pursued anyway.
Under the statute, a full-service community school is defined as a government-run elementary or secondary school that âparticipates in a community-based effort to coordinate and integrate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services through community-based organizations and public and private partnerships.â The parental replacement centers also must âtargetâ families and children for âservicesâ covering their âacademic, physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs,â according to the statute. The legislation, though, merely expands and purports to authorize and boost funding for various programs on âcommunity schoolsâ that had already been unleashed by Obama's Education Department, apparently without specific statutory authority to do so.
While parents and voters might be alarmed at the schemes, special-interests, crony capitalists, teachers' unions, bureaucrats, and other Big Government forces were celebrating the developments. âThe inclusion of the Full-Service Community Schools program in the Every Student Succeeds Act reflects a broader vision for our public schools in ESSA â a vision that recognizes that educators must work in partnership with their communities to help all young people thrive,â exclaimed Martin Blank, director of the Coalition for Community Schools and president of the educational totalitarianism-promoting Institute for Educational Leadership. The coalition celebrated Representative Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) for their efforts to promote the scheme.
Not even bothering to conceal the Orwellian nature of his pet project, Hoyer bragged about his role in pushing the scheme through Congress, as well as the unprecedented government meddling in family life that it aims to bring about. âPromoting full-service community schools has been a priority of mine for many years, and this legislation builds on earlier efforts to promote and expand this model, which brings existing critical community services for children and their parents â such as early childhood learning, medical and dental screenings, and career counseling â into schools,â the far-left congressman said in a statement.
Apparently top school bureaucrats also believe their job responsibilities include usurping the role of families and parents in the raising of their own children. âIn a broad ESSA that offers comprehensive reauthorization, we are proud to continue to support the Community Schools model and commend Congress for including the program in the reauthorization,â said Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association. âThe Full Service Community Schools program encompasses more than just academics â it ensures success beyond the inside of school buildings. Only when children have support for all their needs will schools have a real chance of helping every student master required education concepts and skills.â
Big Labor was delighted, too. American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten, for instance, could hardly contain her glee about the rapidly expanding role of government schools in child rearing. âThis is a big win for students, families and educators because the wraparound services that are part and parcel of community schools help level the playing field for disadvantaged students and their families,â she gushed in a statement. âIn addition to providing a strong academic program, community schools provide social, emotional and health services needed to educate the whole child and mitigate the impact of poverty. This is particularly important today since more than half of all public school students are poor.â
As community schools increasingly usurp more and more control over more and more children, the Obama administration is forging ahead in other areas, too. The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, are currently pursuing a policy in which parents are described as âequal partnersâ with government in the raising of their own children. âIt is the position of the Departments that all early childhood programs and schools recognize families as equal partners in improving childrenâs development, learning and wellness across all settings, and over the course of their childrenâs developmental and educational experiences,â reads the draft policy posted on the federal government's website.
Beyond community schools, the ESSA legislation also targets Americans for government âeducationâ at earlier and earlier ages. Among other provisions, the ESSA scheme creates a new federal preschool program â entirely unconstitutional â with massive funding levels aimed at bringing more and more children into government care and the earliest possible opportunity. âWe know that the early years can make a huge difference in a childâs life, so this law lays the foundation to expand high-quality pre-schools,â boasted Obama, who called the bill passed by the GOP-controlled Congress a âChristmas miracle.â Since taking office, Obama has been trying to herd more children into government-run programs. And thanks to Republicans, he has now succeeded, as top Obama officials have been boasting.
Also part of the new statute are â21st century community learning centers,â described in the legislation as a scheme to offer students a âbroad array of additional servicesâ including everything from âcounseling programsâ and âhealth educationâ to âcultural programsâ and âyouth development activities.â The scheme is meant to keep children in government care outside of school hours, too, providing funds for âactivitiesâ before and after the school day. Even parents are supposed to be ensnared in the federal program, with the statute calling for the âcommunity learning centersâ to provide a âparenting skills program.â Data collection to measure âstudent successâ is a key component of the plot, too.
Critics sounded the alarm. Attorney and activist Jane Robbins with Truth in American Education, for instance, said the âcommunity learning centersâ scheme means âschools will be expanded to replace family and church as the center of every childâs life, offering myriad 'services' including mental-health programs.â âFew things should alarm parents more than the prospect of the governmentâs assessing their childâs mental health and proceeding to fix any problem the government claims to find,â Robbins added, noting that this is precisely what the Republican Congress had imposed on America. U.S. taxpayers will fork over more than $1 billion per year for the âcommunity learningâ scheme alone.
The broader ESSA legislation, which was celebrated by the Obama administration as a massive victory for its radical agenda, is also packed with references to âmental health.â In essence, government schools are now expected to seek out any child deemed to have a âmental healthâ problem â or even those children supposedly potentially at risk of someday developing a âmental healthâ problem. Teachers are expected to receive training in how to identify such children. Children will be regularly tested and profiled for the purpose. Schools, meanwhile, will be charged with referring such students for âtreatment.â The role of parents in the whole process, if there is one, remains unclear. But considering trends in the âmental healthâ industry, parents should be deeply concerned about these developments.
The ESSA statute, despite being unconstitutional on every level, is going to help the Obama administration and the broader establishment in their goal of âfundamentally transformingâ America. In fact, the legislation will be crucial, as it targets the minds of children for radical brainwashing and indoctrination. Top Obama education bureaucrats have already made their Orwellian agenda clear. Recently retired Education Secretary Arne Duncan, for instance, has boasted of using government schools to transform your children into âgreen citizensâ with UNESCO as his âglobal partner.â He has also called for government boarding schools that would keep some children 24/7.
Americans concerned about the future of their children, liberties, self-government, Constitution, and even nation, must resist the agenda and protect their own children from a federal government gone mad. Withdrawing from government schools and replacing members of Congress who violated their oath of office and the Constitution to foist ESSA on America would be a good start.
Well they could use more drones for the collective...
Uh huh, told you so. The usurper was indeed taking notes on Scotland assigning someone other than the parents to oversee children.
The Democrats can always rely on the Republicans to deliver.
Always.
Thank you for referencing that article Sopater. Please bear in mind that the following critique is directed at the article and not at you.
Patriots, please bear in mind that the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate, tax, spend or decide policy for INTRAstate schools.
Remember in November !
So if patriots elect Trump, or whatever conservative they elect, they will also need to elect a new, state sovereignty-respecting Congress that will work strictly within its Constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers to support the president.
Note that such a Congress will also probably be willing to fire state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices.
This is awful. Of course the unions like it, more jobs for them which translates into more donations to demo rats. We need to shut down the department of education.
Like those republiCrats.
Excellent!
Three hot meals, a cot in the gym and washer/dryer, who needs parents.
Passe, and in many places, non-existent.
Millions of Americans are giving birth the children and then not providing any kind of home environment. The kids are being “raised” by ad hoc arraignments of grandmothers, aunts and cousins.
What the government wants to do is an affront to liberty — and a grim recognition of how deteriorated society has become.
Children will be removed from any home in which the Christian faith is taught (already happening - in Norway, I think).
DOE shutdown is 35 years overdue.
And folks wonder why an outsider like Trump can appeal to people.
Well, let’s just put all of the kids in an orphanage.
Also, far too many people hand over their precious babies to be raised by strangers in day care centers.
“How can you say what my best interest is?
What are you trying to say, I’m crazy?
When I went to your schools,
I went to your churches,
I went to your institutional learning facilities?!
So how can you say I’m crazy?”
Duncan should be locked up in St.Elizabeth’s for even saying it.
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