Lately we’re hearing a lot about America’s teachers leaving their beloved profession. Utah’s State School Board is answering this problem, not by restoring local control over education, but by doubling-down on federal initiatives that dismantle local control over curriculum.
Here’s what every parent and local school board member needs to know about the teacher shortage:
Believe it or not, the teacher shortage was a pre-planned effect of the Common Core testing initiatives. Yep. As we’ve learned from the history of nations, governments create the problem and then step in with the solution (or noose).
And, now that Utah is losing teachers, guess who is already there to help us train more teachers? Yep. The good old Feds and their Global partners. This racket is part of federal STEM initiatives.
Utah’s State School Board will begin giving licenses to teachers who receive training from “Master Teachers.” But, ask yourself this, “Who will be training the Master Teachers and who will the Master Teachers be?”
In July 2012, the Obama administration called for funding for its STEM Master Teacher Corp. The goal is to train (and give federal stipends to) 10,000 Master Teachers in STEM fields—with the end-goal being to train 100,000 STEM teachers in 10 years.
An early announcement for this STEM Master teacher workforce was at the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2011 meeting in Chicago. Here’s what 100Kin10 (a group that answered—after helping create—the Obama administration’s call to build the STEM Master Teacher pipeline) said about itself in July 2016,
“100Kin10 was launched five years ago at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America Meeting in Chicago in June 2011, with 28 initial partners pledging to go above-and-beyond their existing strategies to help secure 100,000 excellent STEM teachers for America’s classrooms.”
Then, 100Kin10 announced that President Obama was a full partner:
“President Obama Announces 100Kin10 Has Commitments to the Full 100,000 New STEM Teacher Goal”
Then, they said, “100Kin10 joined with President Obama today, on National Teacher Appreciation Day, to announce that it has secured the commitments to train 100,000 new, excellent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers by 2021, achieving a major milestone in the ambitious goal laid out by the President five years ago. As of today’s announcement, the 100Kin10 network of 280+ national partners has collectively pledged more than $90 million to support the development and ongoing support of 100,000 new STEM teachers; and 30,000 new teachers have already been trained. The President highlighted today’s achievement as a feature of his legacy on education.”
Now, don’t forget that STEM teaching and learning means something different to conservatives than it means to progressives, which is why local control of education is so critical. Remember that President Obama thinks that climate change is the world’s worst threat.
And, speaking to UNESCO in 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said,
“The United States cannot, acting by itself, dramatically reduce poverty and disease or develop sustainable sources of energy. America alone cannot combat terrorism or curb climate change. To succeed, we must collaborate with other countries.
Those new partnerships require American students to develop better critical thinking abilities, cross-cultural understanding, and facility in multiple languages. They also will require U.S. students to strengthen their skills in science, technology, engineering, and math—the STEM fields that anchor much of our innovation in the global economy.
These new partnerships must also inspire students to take a bigger and deeper view of their civic obligations—not only to their countries of origin but to the betterment of the global community. A just and socially responsible society must also be anchored in civic engagement for the public good.”
You’ll want to read the full speech because Arne talks about how Governors jumped onto the Fed’s Common Core bandwagon and that federal education reforms were about global/systemic change, not academic standards.
Bill Gates, the largest funder of Common Core AND the largest funder of the 100Kin10 initiative is in favor of combatting climate change by controlling population.
And, just for a little bit of history, this entire racket was started back in 2009 with the Obama administration’s Educate to Innovate initiative. The White House announced their goals:
- Build a CEO-led coalition to leverage the unique capacities of the private sector (what CEO’s do we see leading the STEM initiatives in Utah? Know any of them personally? Share this article with them.)
- Prepare 100,000 new and effective STEM teachers over the next decade
- Showcase and bolster federal investment in STEM
- Broaden participation to inspire a more diverse STEM talent pool
As reported by Science Magazine,
“The president’s plan would be to start with 2500 teachers—50 at 50 sites across the country—and add locations over the next 4 years until there were 10,000 teachers in the corps. The teachers, who would serve for 5 years, would be selected by the local districts and deployed as needed.”
Now, that the Feds have surpassed their first objective, their onto training 100,000 progressive teachers—and Utah’s State School Board is right on board with the federal agenda.
Utah’s State School Board elections could not be more critical than this year. Please. Vote for these candidates (which includes Jonathan Johnson for Governor, #HireJJ) so that we can restore local control over what our teachers learn and teach, and what our children learn about what creates freedom. Hint: It isn’t big government.
As you said just as planned. It is the Hegelian Dialectic at its finest. But funny they are pushing STEM when we all know (even the creators of CC) that Common Core WILL NOT prepare students for STEM. So maybe these new STEM Master Teachers will be going to schools that teach the elites children like the private school that Bill Gates sends his kids too or the private school that Obama sends his girls too???
Thanks Karen. Yes. We know that Common Core doesn’t prepare students for authentic work in the STEM fields.
http://pioneerinstitute.org/news/lowering-the-bar-how-common-core-math-fails-to-prepare-students-for-stem/
But, that’s why Higher Education has been systemically changed while primary and secondary ed have been systemically changed–-most effeciently under the Obama administration and the Gates Foundation. Higher Education is being dumbed down so that we educate children to be social change agents, not free thinkers in a free society.
This also a ploy to end teaching as a career choice. Bring in unqualified teachers, ask them to stay for a year or two as a public service and pay them half of what a fully trained teacher makes. These teachers are inevitably hired to work in low ses or title one schools. This increases the low scores in these schools, leads to state turn control i.e. Federal control and the greater use of for profit charters.
One does not need to look far to see that these schools do not function well, are fraught with fraud and often open and close without warning. They cherry pick students. Charter schools are sold as schools of choice. This is a misnomer. The CEO in a differing state controls the curriculum, the hiring of teachers and the discipline forced on students. Better check that out, it is not good. They have higher rates of attrition and suspensions. Many do not back fill.
So you do your research, find what looks like a great school and enroll, congratulations. Two months later the school has taken the state’s funding for your student.
Possible scenario 1: Your child is now targeted. He is below level, or he is a management problem (your six year old failed to track the teacher or worse was seen talking at lunch). You might want to find out what punishments are used for these infractions. Eventually he is suspended for these terrible behaviors. Eventually you are asked to find a new school. But where? The school holds the funding for your student.
Possible scenario 2: The school goes bankrupt. They disappear with your funding. Now you must find a new school, but where?
Which charter is going to educate your child with out your student’s funds? The state’s public school. They take everyone. Unfortunately they don’t get your student’s funding either. Without funding, your public school has been forced to increase class loads. There are so many students in the classroom that there are not enough desks. Think this can’t happen? Check out Ohio’s public schools. See what happened in Philidelphia. The miracle in New Orleans, proved not to be so great. We absolutely need to support our locally controlled public schools. We need as a state to free our school system from federal funds and become more active in our school communities.
Once again outside political donors are attempting to control our student’s education.
Great rundown. Thank you!
There are two types of charter schools. When you mention out of state control, that is one type of corporate charter system. The other which I think is more common in at least the Utah county area, are parent led charters which actually select their curriculum locally and control it. There are issues with the system with taxation and representation which should be addressed, but not every charter can be lumped into the same category. That said, the problems you describe can be accurate. Local control means freedom from the feds, and freedom from the state. Local boards (of which there should be many more to bring education truly local) should have complete control over what happens locally, with basic guidelines from the state and protection from themselves enforced by the state so the locals don’t go to the feds and private donors who attach strings to funding.
I respectfully disagree. If a school accepts Federal Dollars, they are required to teach Common Core, which means they are Federally controlled. Some PRIVATE schools are locally controlled. (Some are controlled by Common Core of their own choice).
I was stating the ideal. Local control *should mean* freedom from federal dollars and strings. Also, not every school that receives federal dollars has to teach to “Common Core” standards. Several states have non-CC standards and receive federal funding. One big problem though is the narrowing of curriculum providers who are all aligned to CC so even if you’re not on CC standards, your options for curriculum are shrinking to only CC aligned materials.
I appreciate you making this distinction between charters. Most of the charter critics I know, clump them all together as corporate controlled.
I left my home state of Utah after several years of teaching there. I am so happy to have control of my curriculum, classroom, and other things now. I sure hope the best for Utah but you really need to wake-up! The pot is getting hotter and only a few people are jumping. It isn’t about sticking it out for your retirement – it is about standing up for the kids and our country’s future.
John Taylor Gatto’s book, “The Underground History of American Education” shows us that the plan is to replace religious beliefs in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost and the SOUL with STEM. Awesome book by the way. Please be aware that STEM is not about jobs, careers, employment, education or knowledge. It is about replacing Christianity. Christianity is what is stopping the NWO and what is in the way of every evil plot.