Government Monopoly: A Letter To John Huppenthal On Common Core/ACCRSPosted: 2014-04-09 TO:
Mr. John Huppenthal
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Arizona Department of Education
1535 West Jefferson Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
April 6, 2014
Re: Common Core State Standards Initiative aka Arizona’s College and Career Ready
Standards
Dear John,
This subject has become overwhelming in its importance and political implications.
Those who support the plan like the continuity and "rigor" of the scheme. They also like the money which comes with it in the form of Title 1 funding, among other things.
"Critical thinking" is of paramount importance just as it was with No Child Left Behind, Goals 2000 and all preceding government supported education programs. It has been thus since the 1930s when John Dewey was the education guru of the Roosevelt administrations.
Critical thinking and rigorous studies are terrific as long as they are in the hands of those who support the principles of our Founding Fathers as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Progressive liberals seem to have lost sight of those principles. They doubt the moral ethic of freedom and liberty. What has changed?
If the academic disciplines are used by leaders to subvert our founding principles by subtly changing the meaning of our Constitution through legislation, the court system and the education system, our nation will fail. We shall fail at the hands of our leaders who would see us as a socialist nation, rather than a nation devoted to liberty and freedom. The implications of such a failure are beyond comprehension. Not only would freedom and liberty fall victim to despotism, but the Judeo-Christian ethic would also suffer. If it weren’t for the Judeo-Christian ethic, our nation wouldn’t exist today.
So, as you impose the ACCRS/CCSSI on the citizenry, please consider some of the adverse aspects of the plot.
1. It came to all states as a part of the President’s Race to the Top initiative. If a state wanted to participate in RTTT, and the funding it promised, it was mandatory to accept CCSSI. When government sets such guidelines we call it incentive (legal). When an individual or business makes such demands, it’s called extortion (illegal). No one would accept it.
2. Generally speaking, the scheme is designed to have an all-inclusive curriculum and testing system which encompasses all states. There is to be no deviation from the program. In other words, this is a government monopoly, specifically the White House via The Department of Education, which dictates the terms of the contract. Government money means government control, all denials notwithstanding.
3. Government control means indoctrination of the precepts and concepts the government wants the people to know, understand and follow. This is a principle which was well understood by monarchs and dictators from Sun Tzu to Augustus Caesar to Lenin to Hitler to Mao. Based on his actions thus far, government control seems to be the guiding-light of our current president.
4. As a student of American History, which is little more than a footnote in today’s schools, you’re aware of these words from George Washington’s first farewell address:
"The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. ...of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it;...watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned;..."
Are you willing to be complicit in the failure of our state, and ultimately in that of our nation, by allowing political money to stand in the way of original principles? Principles which are proven by history to be valid. Will you stand up for freedom and liberty or will you succumb to the siren call of political power? Will you be a Nero or a Neville Chamberlain? A Patrick Henry or a Thomas Paine? One path leads to ruin, the other to success. Which will be your legacy?
Respectfully,
Don Kennedy
PC LD 18
|
|
