The News Impacting Our Children In Public Schools.

1. DECEMBER:  Proverbs 12:1-4  (HCSB) - (Chapters 10-24 ~Wisdom For All People) - Bible Gateway  1. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is stupid. 2. The good person obtains favor from the Lord, but He condemns a man who schemes. 3. Man cannot be made secure by wickedness, but the root of the righteous is immovable.
2. Teacher instructs students to sing Muslim song, parents enraged | OneNewsNow.com November 22, 2015 | Michael F. HaverluckSeventh-grade students at a Southern California middle school were led by their teacher to sing a “fight song” in their classroom, promoting the religion of Islam.
3. Attorney: Homeschoolers target of 'surveillance age' | OneNewsNow.com  November 20, 2015 | Bob Kellogg |  An attorney for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association says a Wisconsin school district had no legal right to send a letter to homeschool parents that requested the names of their children.
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1. Blaine Amendment shouldn't stop Education Savings Accounts | The Heritage Foundation By Lindsey Burke | Nov. 2015 | "Dismal."  "A train wreck."  That's how people have characterized the results of this year's National Assessment of Educational Progress. ... The NAEP assesses fourth- and eighth-graders' performance in reading and math ... This money can be used for tuition at a private school of choice, or it can be used to completely customize a child's education. ESA funds can pay for private tutors, online learning options, special education therapies and services, textbooks, curricula and Advanced Placement tests, among a variety of other education-related services and products. The customization opportunities are endless and represent a watershed moment for education in Nevada. ... the "Blaine Amendment" - originally established to blunt the growth of Catholic schooling. ... the Institute for Justice notes, the language does not apply to "publicly funded educational assistance programs like Nevada's ESA Program" and "does not constrain the private choices of private individuals." ... the Institute for Justice observes, just like charter and magnet schools, ESAs simply provide for additional education options on top of the existing public school system.
2. An Open Education System for Individualized Learning in K-12 and Higher Education | The Heritage Foundation November 9, 2015 | By Lindsey Burke and Vance H. Fried |  Notions about how the American education system should function, from kindergarten to college, are changing.  The very idea of constructs such as grade levels, and a rigid division between high school and college, is being challenged.  The proliferation of online learning has created unprecedented access to a wide range of academic content, laying the groundwork for a competency-based education system and an individually tailored academic experience. 
3. From Piecemeal to Portable: Transforming Title I into a Student-Centered Support System | The Heritage Foundation  September 28, 2015 | By Lindsey Burke | Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has failed to meet its objective of improving in the most effective way possible the educational outcomes for children from disadvantaged families.  Title I programs involve funding complexities, administrative burdens, and legal restrictions that substantially reduce their usefulness.  The nearly $15 billion Title I program consists of a stream of convoluted and piecemeal formula grants that have little relationship to actual poverty.  ... Congress should replace the existing Title I program with a straightforward and effective program that allows states the flexibility to make Title I dollars "portable," so that ... families choose to use the money from the Education Savings Accounts to send their child to such a school, acceptance of those funds to educate the child does not bring the federal bureaucracy into the school.

1. Florida Bill Expanding Health Freedom and Setting Stage to Nullify Obamacare Clears Committee | Tenth Amendment Center Blog TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2015) | A Florida bill that would help facilitate healthcare freedom and set the stage to nullify Obamacare in practice overwhelmingly passed out of a House committee Thursday. ... Rep. Fred Costello introduced House Bill 37 (HB37) in August. The legislation specifies that direct primary care agreements ...

1. NEWS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-National Coalition Opposes No Child Left Behind Rewrite Conference Bill - Florida Parents Rise by: Meredith Mears | on October 13, 2015 | FLParentsRISE has the distinct honor of signing onto this letter. ... The coalition’s letter opens with, “In a coast to coast effort, parent and citizen groups, resisting the national and federal takeover of standards, testing, curriculum, and student data collection via Race to the Top and Common Core standards, are loudly voicing their concerns and opposition to the conference committee report being written for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This letter strongly urges suspension of work on this bill “until a new administration is elected that, we hope, will follow the rule of law and the Constitution regarding the proper federal role in education.” ''' “It was sent to congressional education leaders responsible for ...
2. Recall the FL legislature renamed Common Core to FL Standards Assessments.  See Public_School_Resources_News below.  . 

1. ESEA Reauthorization – Ramming Through a Bad Deal for America’s Children | Truth in American Education December 1, 2015 By Emmett McGroarty | The following is an open letter to members of Congress: Dear Member: A secretive, "smoke-filled room" process that excluded parents of millions of public schoolchildren and the vast majority of their elected representatives has resulted in revisions to the Senate and House ESEA reauthorization bills. The final version of the compromise bill (dubbed the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA), released at 9:30 AM on November 30, is 1,061 pages long and confirms that ESSA must be defeated. ... More than 200 grassroots groups and experts across the nation have expressed their adamant opposition to any ESEA reauthorization based on the House and Senate bills. Nothing in the final bill lessens that opposition. Attached are comments about what the draft ESSA says on ...Currently, it is scheduled for December 2; .. clearly not sufficient. House members will be forced to vote on a bill they haven’t read.  Let the states aggressively NULLIFY it!
2. Truth in American Education | Fighting to stop the Common Core State Standards, their Assessments and Student Data Mining. November 23, 2015 By Shane Vander Hart | Late-Stage Draft of ESEA Reauthorization Bill | A late-stage draft of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization has been released that confirms much of what has already been leaked.
3. Florida Rep. Debbie Mayfield files a resolution to change the Commissioner of Education position to elected , by: Meredith Mears | on November 21, 2015 | Happy Saturday common core Fighters! Just another reason to love Rep. Debbie Mayfield! (copied from another email)  Debbie Mayfield will now be filing a joint resolution to amend the Florida Constitution that would change the Commissioner of Education post from an appointed position, to an elected one.  If Mayfield’s bill passes in the Florida legislature, it will then go to the Secretary of State, whose job it would be to word how the amendment reads on the 2016 ballot.  The amendment would install the Commissioner of Education position onto the Governor’s cabinet alongside the CFO, Attorney General and Commissioner of Agriculture.  The cabinet would then be tasked to serve as the acting Board of Education, which is currently appointed by the governor. If the constitutional amendment gets on the 2016 ballot, and is voted on and passes, the job of Commissioner of Education will then be placed on the 2018 ballot. ...Rep. Mayfield filed a resolution to make Commissioner of Ed an elected position. 
4. NEWS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-National Coalition Opposes No Child Left Behind Rewrite Conference Bill - Florida Parents Rise by: Meredith Mears | on October 13, 2015 | FLParentsRISE has the distinct honor of signing onto this letter. ... The coalition’s letter opens with, “In a coast to coast effort, parent and citizen groups, resisting the national and federal takeover of standards, testing, curriculum, and student data collection via Race to the Top and Common Core standards, are loudly voicing their concerns and opposition to the conference committee report being written for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This letter strongly urges suspension of work on this bill “until a new administration is elected that, we hope, will follow the rule of law and the Constitution regarding the proper federal role in education.” ... “It was sent to congressional education leaders responsible for ...

1. Key West the Newspaper - Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards' Proposed 2015-16 State Legislative Program - Contributed on September 4, 2015 | Fort Lauderdale, Florida – The Greater Florida Consortium of School Boards (GRCSB) met this past week to create their 2015-16 State Legislative Program. President Patti Good, Broward County School Board, hosted the eleven member school districts that include Broward, St Lucie, Palm Beach, Martin, Miami-Dade, Pinellas, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, Collier, and Monroe County School districts.  (See next)
2. Is this an attempt to control and defeat FL legislature allowing for more parental education options?  Since the first Federal Title I program in 1965 public education has been steadily and continually declining for 50 years!  Please read through the following bullet points regarding the plans of our local constitutional education officials and determine whether their plans are disingenuous, money hungry and monopolisticly opposed to parental freedoms.  Recall that Common Core was renamed Florida Standards Assessments by the legislature.
   
   •  Pinellas County School Board Workshop Agenda – September 15, 2015. Agenda ... 2016 Greater Florida Legislative Consortium. Legislative Platform Draft  Legislative Platform yields (pdf)  >>  https://www.pcsb.org/cms/lib8/FL01903687/Centricity/Domain/608/2016_PCSB_Legislative_Platform.pdf
   • CFCSB Letter, cover letter.
   • GRCSB School Boards Directory   with 8 ea. Legislative Liaisons 
   • Pinellas County School Board - Current Agenda and Minutes  http://pinellasschool.iqm2.com/citizens/ 
   • Draft 2016 Platform  Draft 2016 Platform (pdf)
3. ^.. 
   Why We Must Stop the ESEA / No Child Left Behind Rewrites. (Click pic. to enlarge. )  Send this pic. to your state legislative representative then ask him if this is true for his own kids, nieces and nephews?  Then ask him what's he going to do about it?

1. Your Major Security Issue is where will you spend eternity?-  How To make peace with God.
2. Security Now! #536 - 12-01-15 Listener Feedback, Q&A #224 A security researcher finds 600,000 Arris cable modems have two backdoor vulnerabilities.
3. FBI Kills Youth Anti-Radicalization Program over Muslim Groups’ Bias Claims - Judicial Watch  NOVEMBER 05, 2015  The Obama administration has once again caved into the demands of Islamic activists that have already strong-armed federal and local law enforcement agencies into purging anti-terrorism training material considered offensive to Muslims.  [This just strengthens the case for the 2nd Amendment; concealed carry (hidden guns) and open carry (let it show wherever you go).]
4. Microsoft: Windows 10 Reports on Users; Can't Be Stopped Thursday, 05 November 2015 | Written by C. Mitchell Shaw | The Microsoft Services Agreement and its accompanying documents, to which one must agree before installing or using any Microsoft product or service, run roughly 40,000 words and would take 110 pages to print. Agreeing to these documents grants Microsoft the right to read, save, and share anything stored on or accessed using any computer running Microsoft Windows, as well as any computer using any Microsoft products or services. ... What this means is that users who "upgrade" to Windows 10 or who purchase a PC with Windows 10 preinstalled have already agreed to allow Microsoft to read every e-mail, private message, calendar entry, document, and any other text; to view all photos, videos, charts, graphs, and any other graphic; to monitor and record all web traffic, searches, and downloads; and capture all keystrokes. Microsoft is then able to save and share that information at its discretion. As The Microsoft Privacy Policy puts it: ... We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary. ... At about the same time, as we reported: ... To make matters worse, Microsoft seems to be rolling out updates to Windows 7 and 8 that bring them into line with the "spyware" elements of Windows 10. Because Microsoft's Services Agreement and Privacy Policy apply to all products and services offered by Microsoft, it looks as though the company is expanding its spying to include Windows 7and 8. The New American covered the specifics of these agreements in a previous article. According to hakspek.com, "new updates that are being deployed to all Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 machines will turn their computers into a big piece of spyware, just like" Windows 10.
5. China Unable To Recruit Hackers Fast Enough To Keep Up With Vulnerabilities In U.S. Security Systems - The Onion  October 26, 2015 | Vol 51 Issue 43 News · Technology · World · China | BEIJING—Despite devoting countless resources toward rectifying the issue, Chinese government officials announced Monday that the country has struggled to recruit hackers fast enough to keep pace with vulnerabilities in U.S. security systems. “With new weaknesses in U.S. networks popping up every day, we simply don’t have the manpower to effectively exploit every single loophole in their security protocols,” said security minister Liu Xiang, who confirmed that the thousands of Chinese computer experts employed to expose flaws in American data systems are just no match for the United States’ increasingly ineffective digital safeguards. “We can’t keep track of all of the glaring deficiencies in their firewall protections, let alone hire and train enough hackers to attack each one. And now, they’re failing to address them at a rate that shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. The gaps in the State Department security systems alone take up almost half my workforce.” At press time, Liu confirmed that an inadequate labor pool had forced China to outsource some of its hacker work to Russia.
6. Top Story: Major data breach puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk | One Page | Komando.com November 30, 2015, By Justin Ferris, VTech toys are popular, but unfortunately it looks like VTech's security isn't on par with its toy-making skills. It just experienced a massive data breach, which is becoming depressingly common. What isn't common is that this one puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk. 

1. Truth Wins Out...| Family Research Council November 19, 2015 | While some churches are shrinking back in the assault on marriage, several groups -- including The Evangelical Theological Society -- are doing anything but.  At the organization’s Atlanta conference earlier today, America’s premier body of Evangelical Protestant scholars, professors, teachers, and students, adopted four resolutions on human sexuality that are consistent with the Bible’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. ... The resolutions are as follows: (1) We affirm that all persons are created in the image and likeness of God and thus possess inherent dignity and worth.  (2) We affirm that marriage is the covenantal union of one man and one woman, for life.  (3) We affirm that Scripture teaches that sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage as defined above.  This excludes all other forms of sexual intimacy.  (4) We affirm that God created men and women, imbued with the distinct traits of manhood and womanhood, and that each is an unchangeable gift of God that constitutes personal identity.

1. Yahoo Mail Blocks Users Using Adblockers Euan Viveash , 2 days ago |  Yahoo has started to prevent some of its Yahoo-Mail users accessing their email if they use ad-blocking software in their browser.  Several hundred users in the US have encountered a message that asks them to disable their ad-blocker before being allowed to  access their Yahoo Mail.  “Please disable Ad Blocker ...read more
2. Remember Dec. 7th, 1941  I Fought For You | The Sound Tank | SermonSpice $20 | To know the real value of Freedom, one must know the truth of the following statement "Some gave all while all gave some."   Christ gave his all to give you freedom and salvation.  Likewise some men and women had to give all of themselves so that you and I can have the freedom we enjoy today.  Reflect and be grateful.  Look at the cross to what freedom costs.  If you want people to get the chills, and instill a sense of pride in our country and military, this is the one!  This gripping, patriotic film short is great to honor vets, remember the fallen and teach kids the price of their freedom.    ( Ric Burns and PBS recall our ‘Debt of Honor’ to disabled veterans )
3. The Tea Party and The John Birch Society | Sunday, 24 October 2010 | Written by Raven Clabough, According to John Amato, founder of the Crooks and Liars blog, a Bloomberg poll confirms a notion that readers of The New American may celebrate but left-wing media outlets such as Crooks and Liars lament: The Tea Party movement's ideals are an extension of those held by The John Birch Society. The not-so-happy liberal blogger wrote, "A new Bloomberg poll on the Tea Party movement confirms ... Tea Party activists are an extension of the most extreme, far-right John Birch Society values, with the added bonus of funding from the corporate right." According to Bloomberg, Respondents who identify with the Tea Party are almost unanimous in saying it stands for lower taxes, smaller government and personal responsibility. The Bloomberg poll also found: ... 
4. Barna Profiles Skeptics  AFAJournal July-August 2015, pg. 7. (Skeptics are either atheists or agnostics.) ... "skeptics draw their conclusions based on three primary components: rejection of the Bible, lack of trust in the local church, and cultural re-enforcement of a secular worldview" read: cultural re-inforcement through 13 years of secular public school indoctrination).  
5. Study labels 'homophobia' as a disease November 18, 2015 | Charlie Butts | A California professor who openly expresses his conservative social views says a recent study on "homophobia" is an example of the "garbage" emanating from the field of social psychology.
6. Students for Life of America, 9900 Courthouse Road , Spotsylvania, Virginia 22553 |  Kristan Hawkins | President, | Last Thursday evening, on the ABC hit show Scandal, the main character, Olivia Pope, had an abortion.  In fact, the entire Christmas episode was all about abortion. In the show, Olivia encourages the president’s ex-wife and now Senator to finish the filibuster she started on Christmas Eve to stand up for Planned Parenthood funding and then walks into an abortion facility to have an abortion, aborting the child of her and her boyfriend, the President.  As the abortion procedure begins, viewers listened to Aretha Franklin sing “Heavenly hosts sing ‘Alleluia'” and the rest of the “Silent Night."  That’s right, the birth of Jesus became background music for an abortion.  (Boycott ABC - untune the channel.)