With the announcement that Nike was renewing Colin Kaepernick’s contract making him the face of the 30th anniversary of “Just Do It”, many were surprised that Nike would make such a controversial choice for their campaign. Colin Kaepernick rose to fame, or maybe infamy, with his public protest of oppression of African Americans, by taking…
On Thursday, February 16, 2016 at 7:45 am, in room 423, South Dakota Capital Building, the Senate Education Committee will hear SB126. which at this point is a bill co-sponsored by Senator Phil Jensen and Representative Elizabeth May, that would require the Department of Education to use a competitive bidding process when acquiring academic assessments. It is a…
On May 13, 2016, the US Department of Justice and Department of Education issued a letter of significant guidance, “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” to every public K-12 school in the country. Some highlights from this letter: Students are allowed to claim whatever sexual identity they choose. The Departments treat a student’s gender identity…
As many of you know, the GED was rewritten to align with the Common Core State Standards. In 2013, Pearson Education bought the rights to the GED and aligned the test to the Common Core State Standards. If, for whatever reason, you have left the assembly line of the government school institution before receiving a…
As many of you know, Rep. Dan Kaiser, Dist.3, has been a great friend to South Dakotans fighting the nationalization of our K-12 schools through the Common Core Standards. In the 2015 Legislature, Rep. Kaiser led the smoke out of a bill to end Common Core in South Dakota. (Link1) On January 5, 2016, Rep.…
HB 1096, the bill to allow parents to refuse the state assessments, including the behavioral assessment, SBAC, is on the House Education Committee agenda for tomorrow, Wednesday, February 3, 2016. I encourage you to listen live online at the link below. What: House Education Committee Meeting When: Wednesday, February 3, 2016 Time: 7:45 am CST/6:45…
SDACC wants to thank Representative Jim Bolin, for filing a bill to allow parents to refuse the state academic assessments, including the SBAC assessment. Co-sponsors are Representatives Don Haggar, Haugaard, Latterell, Qualm, Rasmussen, Stalzer, Verchio and Wiik. Sen. Jenna Haggar is prime sponsor in the Senate. Senate co-sponsors are Phil Jensen, Betty Olson, Van Gerpen.…
The question has been asked, “Why the rush to suddenly renew NCLB?”. I want to offer some answers to that question. Not that my answers are correct. Just my thoughts. HR5, has been around since 2013. It has taken several forms since then. It was first approved in the House in July 2013, never made…
The final vote on S1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act, will be tomorrow morning, Wednesday, 12/9/2015, at 10:45 am EST. Short of Divine intervention, this bill will pass the Senate. After Cloture vote today, which was successful 86-12 with both Senators Thune and Rounds voting in the affirmative, Sen. Lamar Alexander said, “I don’t think…
Wendy Hart, Alyson Williams and Jane Robbins have prepared a comparison of NCLB and ESSA. Thank-you ladies! No Child Left Behind (NCLB):2002 vs Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA):2015 The ESSA has been explained as a significant improvement over NCLB in the areas of federal overreach into education, specifically regarding standards, testing, and accountability measures. In…
It has been said that parents, teachers and school districts are crying out for a fix to NCLB. Many promises were made with NCLB, and yet now it is being called the “failed” No Child Left Behind. It is said there were good intentions. I believe there are some good intentions in ESSA. I also…
Last week, the House passed the renewal of NCLB with S1177. You can read about that bill here. Our own Kristi Noem voted for this 1061 page monstrosity with less than 72 hours to read it. We are told the Senate will vote on this leviathan this week. The education establishment has been busy helping…
This is going to be a long post. I want to put all information, we have so far regarding the ESEA/NCLB renewal, now dubbed the “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA) in one place. Given that it is over 1,000 pages of legal ease, and it has only been available for 6 days, we know that…
It is likely that the House of Representatives will vote today on the ESEA/NCLB renewal renamed “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). There are many reasons to oppose this renewal. I want to highlight a few of them here. Over 1,000 pages of federal control does not equal local control. This bill was released to Representatives…
The Thomas More Law Center has filed the challenge to Common Core and the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) against Gov. Daugaard, Dr. Melody Schopp, the South Dakota Department of Education and the South Dakota Board of Education, on behalf of two South Dakota parents. These Plaintiffs seek to stop South Dakota from paying yearly…
South Dakotans Against Common Core 