A hard-hitting video just released by FreedomProject Education (FPE) exposes some of the myriad dangers to liberty and education stemming from Common Core, a deeply controversial scheme to nationalize education standards being pushed by the Obama administration and a coalition of its establishment allies. While only a little over an hour long, the presentation, led by two education experts, offers a concise explanation of the threat and is sure to outrage parents, regardless of political affiliation. Elements of Common Core are already in place across America, and the picture is not pretty.
From the start, leaders at FPE, an online K-12 school offering classical education rooted in Judeo-Christian values, have expressed strong opposition to Common Core and the federalization of schooling. The school boasts of its independence from government — and especially the radical effort to standardize all education by federal authorities and establishment-minded billionaires like Bill Gates. However, as the presenters point out early on in the video, most Americans have never even heard of Common Core. That must change, or the consequences for education, state and local governance, and even the future of America could be dire.
Dr. Duke Pesta, academic director at FPE and an English professor at the University of Wisconsin, compared the effort to impose Common Core and associated government schemes on the American people to a frog being boiled alive over time. It is slow, steady, but goes unnoticed until it is too late. He also said Common Core and related measures represent a “Trojan horse” being used for the implementation of numerous other big-government schemes — particularly the unprecedented gathering of personal information on America’s children and families by Washington, D.C.
“Yet another threat posed by Common Core is the absolute appropriation of Soviet ideology and propaganda in the constructing of Common Core and its implementation,” said Dr. Pesta, citing federal documents outlining elements of the schemes. “A year from now, a year and a half from now, it will be so entrenched in the schools that there can be no modifications.” And so, the opposition must get to work now.
The dangers to liberty and education are enormous, the presentation shows. Among other key threats from Common Core highlighted in the video is the complete federal takeover of education. The usurpation will result in a loss of state and local control — even input — over school materials and what children learn. The one-size-fits-all nature of the scheme, meanwhile, will bring education down to the lowest common denominator, even if one believes that the forces behind the effort are well-intentioned.
The mainstreaming of homosexuality, promiscuity, and other practices — even to young children — is an important component of the scheme as well, Dr. Pesta explained, citing numerous examples from the standards themselves. Indeed, under the guise of “health,” tax-funded abortion behemoth Planned Parenthood, founded by eugenicist Margaret Sanger, is involved in the development and promotion of national standards on “sexuality education.” If parents knew, they would be outraged, the presenters argued.
Also covered briefly in the presentation is how the United Nations, UNESCO, and Agenda 21 are all linked to Common Core. Even top Obama administration officials such as Education Secretary Arne Duncan have admitted to collaboration with the UN in the education field. Indeed, much of the national education scheme — especially the accompanying “Next Generation Science Standards” — teaches children to believe pseudo-environmentalist doctrines posing as science promoted by the UN and its allies worldwide.
Despite claims made by some proponents of Common Core, teachers and schools in jurisdictions that have signed up must comply with the entire program. As top attorneys for the U.S. Department of Education quoted in the presentation have warned, states will become little more than “administrative units” in the nationalized education scheme. That, of course, represents a direct affront to the U.S. Constitution and even statutes passed by Congress forbidding federal involvement in certain areas.
“The goal is to have every school in America teaching the same thing, every day, at the same time,” says FPE Curriculum Director Mary Black, a veteran educator who has been teaching for four decades and sounding the alarm about Common Core for months in public seminars about the standards. “The standards themselves are written in a manner that will teach students what to think, not how to think… Most of the country hasn’t yet felt the iron grasp of Common Core, but it’s real and it is a threat.”
Also troubling, according to Black and Pesta, is the background behind the whole scheme and how it came to be. For one, it was created by private, unaccountable organizations — the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The entities also hold copyrights over the standards, ensuring that they cannot be changed except by the forces behind Common Core, the presentation explains.
The standards themselves, meanwhile, are largely the product of lobbyists and special interests with big money from places such as the controversial Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other establishment-linked institutions. Federally funded national test “consortia” are currently developing examinations to go along with Common Core. To “convince” state and local officials to sign up to the dubious standards, the expanded monitoring of students, and the national tests, the Obama administration used a combination of tax-funded bribes, waivers, and coercion, Pesta and Black continued.
Also alarming, the presentation argues, are the various parallels and links between Common Core and ObamaCare. The two education experts explore, for example, how the various programs’ massive collections of information are linked, quoting, among other sources, sections of the “Affordable Care Act” itself. With the IRS also gathering huge amounts of information and the school biometric data gathering that is already going on in some places under various guises, the potential for abuses is frightening.
The presentation also cites documents from the U.S. Department of Education, which have since been apparently removed from government websites after sparking a public outcry, to show that the surveillance and data-gathering aimed at children is beyond most people’s wild imaginations. Among other concerns, one federal document cited in the video outlines various “student affective sensors” that monitor students’ bio-physiological responses, including a “facial expression camera” and more. Some are already in use in federally funded education programs, according to the document.
Finally, aspects of Common Core are already in schools, the presentation explains, with the rest set to be implemented soon. The standards are being rolled out quickly in the 45 states that have adopted the whole scheme. Even states that have not signed on will be unable to escape all of the effects. Even though opposition is growing as awareness spreads, public officials across America often do not understand the full extent of the controversies and problems, Pesta explained.
The New American magazine also recently covered Common Core in an extensive cover-story package on the standards and the Orwellian data-mining. Separately, The New American online has been keeping up with recent developments: the emergence of major progressive forces and public educators joining with conservatives to stop the scheme, the arrest of a parent protesting the standards, and much more. New developments will be covered as they happen.
FPE is urging Americans to watch the video, get informed, and spread the word — homeschoolers and private schools will be affected, too. The presentation is absolutely shocking, and this written review provides only a brief snapshot of the wealth of information provided in the video. Working with state and local officials to stop the scheme before its roots spread too deep is entirely possible at this point, Pesta and Black explained. The consequences of doing nothing, however, are too serious to contemplate.
Watch the video below, and then share it with others:
