Greetings, and Happy Independence Day.

Whether or not you completely agree with our Founding Fathers and the inception of this Country, it is hard to ignore the fact that the work, stress and diligence they put into creating the initial documents and the thoughts behind the Constitution outlining how we are to be governed has provided the world with the greatest nation that has ever existed.  In our short time as a union of States, we have created more industrial and medical miracles, wealth that drives the world economy, and freedom for oppressed people than any other civilization in the history of the world.

How We as a people have gotten to this point, was through the limits that the Constitution has put on our Government.  These limits on Governments power has allowed people to exercise free will.  This free will allows minds to wander and flourish, creating new ideas that provide opportunities and improvements to our lives everyday, known or not, financial or societal.  This is what the Founders of this Country learned through experience and study.  Limit the government and the people will thrive.

Unfortunately, we have entered a period in time in which the Government wants to take back more control, and is doing so under false pretenses.  Common Core State Standards – CCSS – is not a curriculum for schools as much as it is a government tool, or “State” plan to “educate” our children in a manner that cannot, by its very premise, continue our great history or improve the future.  By contrasting the Constitution, and particularly the 10th Amendment, as well as thoughts of the originators with the principals of Common Core, it is clear what the goals and outcome of CCSS is.  It simply cannot be ignored, or underestimated in its importance.

ARTICLE 10  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The 10th Amendment to the Constitution was put in to protect the states from an over bearing National Government.  With 13 separate colonies, filled with independent people who had just won their hard earned freedom from an oppressive King, the Founders faced a challenge getting them together to form an economic force that could defend itself as a whole, but maintain an autonomy from the collective.  And getting the Constitution ratified by all 13 Colonies was not an easy task.  It took Publius 1 year and 85 articles of the Federalist Papers published in 3 New York papers to persuade New Yorkers to support the ratification.  To allow CCSS to take effect, goes against the ideals of this hard fought battle of keeping states rights separate.

And why is it important to keep the individuality of the States?  Imagine an education system without any local or regional control.  Imagine a curriculum without any parental or teacher input.  Imagine only the Department of Education having the control of the curriculum and influence of the materials over your children, while you, your teachers, school board or state will have any say or input.  Not only should you object to this because a curriculum that you might not agree with could be imposed, but simply because this goes against the Constitution.

ARTICLE 9  The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The Constitution does not specifically mention a right to privacy. However, Supreme Court decisions over the years have established that the right to privacy is a basic human right, and as such is protected by virtue of the 9th Amendment.  And since their interpretation allowed the Roe v. Wade decision under the right to privacy provided by this Amendment, it shows that we should take this right to privacy seriously.

How exactly this Right to Privacy is being invaded is through the Data Mining that will be perpetrated through CCSS?  Posture measuring chairs, a pressure measuring computer mouse, fMRI – facial expression monitoring and wireless skin “conductance” sensors that measure pulse (EEG) and skin temp changes, like those used for “lie detectors”.

And for data points, these are just part of the scholarly issues will be part of the students permanent record:  parents political affiliations, family religious affiliation, blood type, medical histories and homework completion.  What could these items possibly have to do with improving our children’s education?  Couple these tools, with some of the data points, and maybe you need to start worrying about how these 2 things can be used together to influence and indoctrinate our children into a “collective” thinking group.  And since parents and local organizations have zero influence over the curriculum, it goes without saying that the sway will be towards a big government, 1 answer ideology.

This idea of who is responsible for the care and education of our children, under the “modern” thinking cannot be better voiced or described than by this clip of Melissa Harris-Perry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qtpdSQox0

ARTICLE 4   The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

There are many who feel that the 4th Amendment can also be applied to the Unconstitutionality of CCSS, as many of the data mining e-tools can gather information about the student, or their family on topics outside of the educational parameters.  A concise example of how this could be used consists of a few controversial topics regardless of political affiliation- How does your family: feel about gun control, gay marriage, the President’s handling of Monsanto, Guantanamo, drones, etc.  So imagine your child reacts and fires up a data tracker.  That remains on their record – and how will that be used to “educate” them?   These are all things that people are forgetting to think about when it comes to saying data mining will help, or better yet, harmless.

I truly hope that you can take a step back and think about these things when you come to form or reform your opinion of CCSS.  It would be bad enough if these types of intrusions were slated to occur, and the curriculum where actually going to improve the current standards of were our educational system is at.  But the problem lies in that CCSS asks us to not only accept these rights intrusions, but also accept an inferior, race to the middle curriculum that has been denounced as a dumbing down of the current curriculum by education experts and scholars asked to sign off on the CCSS curriculum.

CCSS simply will not, and is not designed to improve our children’s education.  I ask that you do some additional research on your own, but please be critical and intellectually honest.  The future of our children and our country rely on it.