Disturbing Testimonies Reveal Workforce Career Pathway Agenda

You may have heard that Minnesota has a new educational initiative called the Minnesota World’s Best Workforce.    This initiative was passed into legislation last spring 2013 as a part of the Omnibus K-12 bill.   What is this “workforce” and the accompanying “career pathways”?  Largely,  parents and the public have been left out of the picture.

According to the Minnesota Department of Education website, “public hearings” should have accompanied all open “discussions of the World’s Best Workforce”.    Many Minnesota school boards have already voted to adopt this WBW,  without any parental input!   Minnesota parents had a choice to make here and once again were left out of the decision-making process!

This informative article demonstrates not only the role of the Chambers of Commerce in our local schools, but also a disturbing trend that is coming to fruition by Winter 2014.   Clarity is presented regarding the not-so-distant timeline which this workforce initiative is fully implemented in Minnesota.

Testimonies from a small Wisconsin town, gets to the root of Common Core, Wisconsin Daily Independent, Oct. 2013

Disturbing testimony from small town America, confirming the fears of many people who are against nationalized adoption of Common Core standards. Link to entire article
http://wisconsindailyindependent.com/disturbing-testimony-at-hearing-reveals-what-is-at-the-core-of-common-core-support/

This article deserves a complete and through read. Below are several excerpts.

The beginning of this article focuses on a testimony from Superintendent Nick Madison from the Brillion school district in Wisconsin. The area is typical of small towns across America.

In one flash of anger, Madison summed up what drives too many supporters of Common Core: the belief that the unexceptional children of the United States are nothing more than servants of industry to be educated only to the extent that industry requires.

Basically this small town is saying they resent that children will not be encouraged to reach for their potential, instead they would be be encouraged to go to trade schools, should Common Core be implemented.

However, it was when Madison lashed out at Representative Michael Schraa that he revealed what is at the core of Common Core. Schraa began his questioning by noting, “American Exceptionalism was present before Common Core, and you are kind of insinuating that we need Common Core standards….” Madison aggressively interrupted, “You bet. That exceptionalism has come and gone with all due respect, Representative.” Madison continued, “We have to be willing to innovate faster than the Chinese can copy us or our industry is going to go away. You talk about what country standards did you look at, here’s what country I look at when I go down to Home Depot and see snow blowers made in China. That’s a real problem for Brillion, that’s our standard. That is who we are competing with.”

Here Madison is insinuating that America will no longer be able to be innovators worldwide because students will be held back by Common Core.

Testimony continued with Jody Lueck, an Appleton business woman and CPA.

The testimony, which seemed to make the legislators most uncomfortable was offered by Appleton businesswoman and CPA, Jody Lueck, who related her experience with the promoters of Common Core. Lueck described a meeting of the Appleton Chamber of Commerce in which a Common Core promotional presentation was made this year.

The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership’s promotional program began with an explanation that Common Core was the centerpiece of their effort to “match up the American educational system with the European educational system of work-ready.”

Lueck advised the legislators that when the group referred to career and college ready, they did not mean college “the way we think about it. They’re discussing technical colleges.” Lueck said that while she valued technical colleges, she became concerned when the group was told, “We need to change to meet the job market demands in Wisconsin and discourage our children from seeking a college degree.” She told legislators that the intent of the proponents is to change the model from one in which we promote thinking to one in which children are trained solely for careers to meet the needs of industry. The chamber members were told that “only 27% of jobs in Wisconsin required a college education, and we are doing our kids a disservice, they said, we needed to change to meet the job market demands in Wisconsin and discourage our children from seeking a college degree.”

Attendees were told this would be a shift in mindset.

When the attendees asked about the role of parents, they were told, “We did not include them because we did not know how this would work.” When the attendees persisted and asked again what the parents’ role would be, the presenters said, ‘We are not telling the parents; their children will bring them along.’

Lueck described a system in which kindergartners will be given information about careers, and by the 8th grade, children will be funneled into 16 career tracks.

Lueck said, “There’s no parental involvement at all. The child will be tested, and the educators will offer them three tracks from which a child can choose based upon the needs of business in Wisconsin.” Students will then be placed in a track that best suits the student’s skill and will feed the industry in need.

“We are going to restructure the educational system so that all schools will work in tandem, and because you can’t have 16 career academies in one school. Different high schools will be assigned different academies,” Lueck testified. Under the new system a child might likely attend one high school one day, and spend other days at another school.

Lueck told the legislators that schools will essentially take over the role of HR departments. Teachers will determine which student is qualified to interview for which apprenticeship. “This is not far-off,” she warned the legislators.

“They didn’t know people were sitting in that audience who would not necessarily agree with what they were doing,” said Lueck. She did not to see “them hijack what education is supposed to be about. We want thinking children who can really critically think and look at things. How did I become a CPA before if our education system was so bad before Common Core?”

Lueck concluded, “If you thought our education system was so bad, why on earth did we wait for a group of east coast foundations to tell us what we should we doing here in Wisconsin?”

There is so much important information here. Lueck’s testimony highlights how business has been coerced into supporting common core, while simultaneously disregarding parent rights and involvement.

At what point, do we as parents realize Common Core is taking away our rights to educate our children? How much more information do we need to become involved in the fight against Common Core? If you believe your children should have the right to choose those own career path, you need to speak out. Common Core is an insidious, lurking, spreading beast that will slowly erode parents rights, educational choice and the traditional family.

Please join the fight against Common Core. Become involved in your local area and spread the word. Pass the link to this article around. Explore this blog and share what speaks to you. Our children’s future choices depend on us. If we don’t fight Common Core, and beat it now, I am afraid of what will become of our future grandchildren and their choices. We are not only fighting for our children but for future generations of American children.