Friday, May 23, 2014

HB953- Just Say NO

Okay troops, we had a great day in Senate Ed yesterday but our work is not yet done.  Just one more week of emails and calls, then we can have a little down time.

We need to get to work on Leger's HB953 which passed through Senate Ed yesterday.

A little backstory on this bill:
When Leger presented this bill in House Ed on April 30th, he announced that he had added amendments (the night before) that would be the "heart of the bill."   Those amendments COMPLETELY changed this bill.  

Very sneaky tactic...

This bill does two things:
1) Delay consequences for teachers/ districts based on assessments.
***This little bit is the "cheese" on the mouse trap.  It's just to lure people in.  And it did. 

2) Cement us to Common Core
***SNAP!  Thats the "arm" of the mouse trap, slamming down on the state of Louisiana, pinning us to Common Core.


If you click on the link below, you can read the original bill, and then the reengrossed (current form) of this bill.



Here is the concern:
Even though the Governor has publicly opposed this bill, we worry that he will sign this bill into law.

Gov. Jindal's policy advisor, Stafford Palmieri has been asked if this bill will cement us to Common Core.  Her response was that the Governor's attorney said that it would not.  Common Core is the ONLY thing that will satisfy the standards and PARCCor SBAC are the only test that will satisfy the testing requirements laid out in the bill.


We need to try to kill this bill on the Senate floor... it will come up for a vote next week.  Please contact every senator and ask them to vote NO for this bill.

AND


Contact Governor Jindal and let him know that the people of Louisiana are WELL AWARE of the full scope of this bill, and we REJECT it!

225-342-0991

Senate Email List:
adleyr@legis.la.gov, alarioj@legis.la.gov, allainb@legis.la.gov, amedeej@legis.la.gov, appelc@legis.la.gov, lasen15@legis.la.gov, brownte@legis.la.gov, smithbuffington@legis.la.gov, chabertn@legis.la.gov, claitord@legis.la.gov, cortezp@legis.la.gov, crowea@legis.la.gov, donahuej@legis.la.gov, dorseyy@legis.la.gov, erdeyd@legis.la.gov, gallotr@legis.la.gov, guillorye@legis.la.gov,  HeitmeierD@legis.la.gov,  johnsr@legis.la.gov, kostelka@legis.la.gov, lafleure@legis.la.gov, longg@legis.la.gov, martinyd@legis.la.gov, millsf@legis.la.gov, morrelljp@legis.la.gov, murraye@legis.la.gov, neversb@legis.la.gov, peacockb@legis.la.gov, perryj@legis.la.gov, petersonk@legis.la.gov, risern@legis.la.gov, smithgl@legis.la.gov, smithj@legis.la.gov, tarverg@legis.la.gov, thompsof@legis.la.gov, walsworthm@legis.la.gov, wardr@legis.la.gov, whitem@legis.la.gov 


Monday, May 19, 2014

Plan to be at the Capitol on Thursday!



Update on the "hostage" education bills:


Directly from Representative John Schroder:
“From what I understand, the bills will be heard this Thursday”


We need a HUGE showing of concerned citizens in the Senate Education committee this Thursday May 22nd to show support for these bills.  Rep.Schroder is expecting for all four of his pending education bills to be heard.  

This includes:

HB 1076: This bill protects students' private, identifiable data. This bill passed the House with a vote of 99-0.

HB 1199: This bill gives parents the right to view all instructional materials and content their children come in contact with. This bill passed the House with a vote of 92-0

HB 988: This bill gives control of curriculum, content and methodology to the local school boards and parents and puts it into law. This bill passed the House with a vote of 93-0.

HB 1015: This bill provides an alternative pathway for students with disabilities to obtain a high school diploma. This bill passed the House with a vote of 99-0.



Please make plans to be there.  This will be the last chance (aside from email and phone calls) to have our concerns regarding these issues heard during this session.  

Please note, we are going on what we have been told.  There is the chance that the agenda will come out without including these bills.  We will put out a notice ASAP if that is the case.






Friday, May 16, 2014

LEAP scores withheld

We have some interesting news…

LEAP scores were scheduled to be released today, Friday May 16, 2014.  Just minutes ago (approximately 1:30 pm), all districts across the state were notified that test scores will NOT be released today as scheduled.  The test scores will be released next week, possibly Tuesday.  

Knowing that today was the day that test results would be released, many students went to school this morning eager to see their results.  Now those students get to worry over the weekend.  

When calling various schools for a statement, we were told this has never happened before.  LDOE says the reason for the delay is "technical difficulties".

Could the hold up be that the scores are so bad, that John White needs time to spin a good story?  Has Common Core done that phenomenal of a job dumbing down our kids?


Parents need to call and ask for their child’s test scores.  We must be relentless until our questions are answered!

LDOE assessments department:  225-342-3404




Thursday, May 15, 2014

Things are heating up!

And there is more to the saga....




Yesterday (May 14th)  in the House education committee, Rep. Richard and Rep. Thompson ask about the "situation":







This morning (May 15th) on the Denny Scaffer Show:
Listen to Rep. John Schroder talking about the bills... Starts at about the 5 minute mark. It goes on until about the 14 minutes mark. Wow. Denny Schaffer really goes off on Appel
http://www.wrno.com/media/podcast-denny-schaffer-morning_rush/denny-schaffer-5152014-7am-24773511/

And then there is the article that was published in the Times Picayune yesterday (May 14th):



Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A little visual aid for everyone...


The Senate Education Agenda for this week has now been published.  None of the bills we have been waiting on are on it.

http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Agenda.aspx?m=16016

Just a quick glance at the chart is all it takes to see that there is some funny business going on.  You won't find a single parent laughing....

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the situation, all of the bills in yellow are by the same author.  Representative Schroder.  Why are his the only ones still waiting?

The chart below is a visual for all (education) House Bills that have cleared the house, and are eligible to be scheduled in the Senate Education Committee:

HB#
House Ed Committee
House Floor
Senate Ed Committee
244
3/12
3/18
5/12
433
3/12
3/19
4/17
600
3/19
4/14
4/28
144
3/19
3/31
4/28
390
3/24
5/12
5/15
242
3/26
4/2
5/12
690
3/26
4/3
5/12
180
3/26
4/21
4/28
728
3/26
4/3
4/28
944
3/26
4/3
5/5
975
3/26
4/3
4/28
1016
3/26
4/3
4/21
1076
4/3
4/7
?
763
4/7
4/14
5/5
542
4/7
4/14
5/12
795
4/7
4/14
4/28
988
4/10
4/21
?
954
4/10
4/21
5/12
171
4/10
4/21
5/12
61
4/14
4/21
5/6
1199
4/21
4/28
?
1228
4/21
4/28
5/12
703
4/21
4/30
5/15
876
4/21
4/28
5/15
1271
4/22
4/29
5/12
415
4/23
4/29
5/12
533
4/23
4/29
5/15
179
4/30
5/6
5/15
178
4/30
5/6
5/15
407
4/30
5/6
5/15
1253
4/30
5/7
5/15
1015
4/30
5/7
?
1282
5/5
5/12
5/15
733
5/5
5/12
5/15
735
5/6
5/12
5/15
Chart by:  LaPACC.  Please link to this blog post to use the chart.



To date Senator Conrad Appel has not scheduled any of Representative Schroder's education bills. With only three weeks left in this legislative session, our kids are running out of time! These four bills deserve a chance to be heard in the Senate Education Committee.

This includes:


HB 1076: This bill protects students' private, identifiable data. This bill passed the House with a vote of 99-0.



HB 1199: This bill gives parents the right to view all instructional materials and content their children come in contact with. This bill passed the House with a vote of 92-0
HB 988: This bill gives control of curriculum, content and methodology to the local school boards and parents and puts it into law. This bill passed the House with a vote of 93-0.

HB 1015: This bill provides an alternative pathway for students with disabilities to obtain a high school diploma. This bill passed the House with a vote of 99-0.

We need to keep contacting the senators, asking them to encourage their colleague to get these bills scheduled.
Here is a very easy way to get email all senators at once, with the Senate Email block provided below. Just Copy/Paste into your email. I like to use the BCC feature, so it does not appear to be a mass email. If you have questions about how to do that, please do not hesitate to ask!

adleyr@legis.la.gov, alarioj@legis.la.gov, allainb@legis.la.gov, amedeej@legis.la.gov, appelc@legis.la.gov, lasen15@legis.la.gov, brownte@legis.la.gov, smithbuffington@legis.la.gov, chabertn@legis.la.gov, claitord@legis.la.gov, cortezp@legis.la.gov, crowea@legis.la.gov, donahuej@legis.la.gov, dorseyy@legis.la.gov, erdeyd@legis.la.gov, gallotr@legis.la.gov, guillorye@legis.la.gov, HeitmeierD@legis.la.gov, johnsr@legis.la.gov, kostelka@legis.la.gov, lafleure@legis.la.gov, longg@legis.la.gov, martinyd@legis.la.gov, millsf@legis.la.gov, morrelljp@legis.la.gov, murraye@legis.la.gov, neversb@legis.la.gov, peacockb@legis.la.gov, perryj@legis.la.gov, petersonk@legis.la.gov, risern@legis.la.gov, smithgl@legis.la.gov, smithj@legis.la.gov, tarverg@legis.la.gov, thompsof@legis.la.gov, walsworthm@legis.la.gov, wardr@legis.la.gov, whitem@legis.la.gov 


Action Alert: Sex Ed Bill



HB 393 by Representative Pat Smith was heard in the House Education committee on Tuesday May 13th.  It passed favorably with a vote of 7-6.  This bill will allow the State Department of Education to survey our kids on risk behaviors, including questions about sexual behavior and experiences.  

You can read the bill here:

Louisiana kids currently take this survey, but by Louisiana law the 9 survey questions having to do with sexual behavior are not included.  If this bill becomes law, that will change.

You can view the full CDC survey here:
Middle School:

High School:

Proponents of this bill say that if Louisiana continues to NOT allow our students to be surveyed on the sexual behavior portion of the survey, researchers can not come to Louisiana and help us solve our problems with regards to kids and sex.

We do not agree!  This bill needs to be killed on the house floor.  Please email all of the reps and tell them to vote NO on HB393.



UPDATE:  HB369 was KILLED in committee today!  
HB369, also by Representative Smith will be heard on WEDNESDAY May 14th.  We need to try to kill this bill in committee.  This bill seeks to REQUIRE, not just authorize sex ed in public schools.  Current law authorizes schools to teach sex ed in grades seven and above, and is limited to scientific information only.

Proposed law would require public schools to provide instruction in sex education EACH YEAR to students.  Why the change from “starting in grade seven” to “each year”?  What does that mean?  Each year, as in kindergarten thru 12?

The law would require that the information include:
  • Information about human sexuality as a normal and healthy aspect of human development.
  • Information which helps students develop skills necessary to form healthy, age appropriate relationships.

This is not the JOB of the schools!  This is a parent's job.  It is a parental right to instill morals and values into our children.  You can not legislate the morality that any given family chooses to instill.  This bill will further remove our ability to parent, instead once again placing that task into the hands of our educational system.

Present law requires approval of materials to be used by the school board AND a parental review committee.  Proposed law requires public school governing authorities (BESE) to make sex education materials available to parents.

You can (and should) read the bill here:

Last fall when all these crazy mamas (I am a proud member of that group) started researching and digging up stuff on common core, we came across this:



The National Sexuality Education Standards
Core Content and Skills K-12. 
(just to be especially clear, K does stand for kindergarten)

These standards call for things such as second graders using proper terms to identify body parts.  Fifth graders would have to define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender. 

This next document comes from the same people:
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwche/Sex%20ed%20class/guidelines.pdf

In this document, here are some Level One (middle childhood, ages 5 through 8; early elementary school) concepts:
  • Teaches that both boys and girls have body parts that feel good when touched.
  • Touching and rubbing one’s own genitals to feel good is called masturbation.
  • Vaginal intercourse – when a penis is placed inside a vagina – is the most common way for a sperm and egg to join.
  • Some people are homosexual, which means they can be attracted to and fall in love with someone of the same gender.

On the National Guidelines Task Force, you will find a strong presence of groups like Planned Parenthood.  

Of course us mamas were on top of this right away, but most everyone else blew this off as something that we would maybe worry about in the distant future.  I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to clearly see that this bill opens the door to those standards.  This is not in the distant future…this could be NEXT school year if this bill passes!  

This bill is bad news. We need to KILL THIS BILL!  That is done by emailing, calling, using Facebook and Twitter to contact the representatives and telling them to KILL HB369.

Email block for House Education Committee:

bishopw@legis.la.gov, broadwaterc@legis.la.gov, burnsh@legis.la.gov, carmodyt@legis.la.gov, carters@legis.la.gov, champags@legis.la.gov, edwardsj@legis.la.gov, henryc@legis.la.gov, hollisp@legis.la.gov, iveyb@legis.la.gov, jeffersonpo@legis.la.gov, larep036@legis.la.gov, landryn@legis.la.gov, legerw@legis.la.gov, pricee@legis.la.gov, reynoldsg@legis.la.gov, richardj@legis.la.gov, shadoinr@legis.la.gov, smithp@legis.la.gov, thompsonj@legis.la.gov, williamsa@legis.la.gov

Here is an email block that you can copy/paste for a QUICK email to every rep:

abramson@legis.la.gov; adamsb@legis.la.gov; larep021@legis.la.gov; armesj@legis.la.gov; 
larep102@legis.la.gov; larep100@legis.la.gov; barrast@legis.la.gov; larep029@legis.la.gov; 
berthelotj@legis.la.gov; billiotr@legis.la.gov; bishops@legis.la.gov; bishopw@legis.la.gov; 
broadwaterc@legis.la.gov; brossettj@legis.la.gov; browntr@legis.la.gov; burfordr@legis.la.gov; 
burnsh@legis.la.gov; larep089@legis.la.gov; larep002@legis.la.gov; carmodyt@legis.la.gov; 
carters@legis.la.gov; champags@legis.la.gov; chaneyb@legis.la.gov; connickp@legis.la.gov; coxk@legis.la.gov; cromerg@legis.la.gov; danahaym@legis.la.gov; dixonh@legis.la.gov; larep052@legis.la.gov; edwardsj@legis.la.gov; larep013@legis.la.gov; foilf@legis.la.gov; franklina@legis.la.gov; gainesr@legis.la.gov; garofalor@legis.la.gov; larep035@legis.la.gov; gisclairj@legis.la.gov; larep066@legis.la.gov; larep041@legis.la.gov; guinnj@legis.la.gov; harrisl@legis.la.gov; harrisoj@legis.la.gov; havardk@legis.la.gov; hazelc@legis.la.gov; henryc@legis.la.gov; hensgensb@legis.la.gov; hilld@legis.la.gov;  hodgesv@legis.la.gov; 
hoffmanf@legis.la.gov; hollisp@legis.la.gov; honored@legis.la.gov; howardf@legis.la.gov; 
hunterm@legis.la.gov; huvalm@legis.la.gov; iveyb@legis.la.gov; jacksonk@legis.la.gov; 
james.ted@legis.la.gov; jeffersonpo@legis.la.gov; johnsoro@legis.la.gov; joness@legis.la.gov; 
larep036@legis.la.gov; larep059@legis.la.gov; landryn@legis.la.gov; landryt@legis.la.gov
lebasb@legis.la.gov; legerw@legis.la.gov; leopoldc@legis.la.gov; lopintoj@legis.la.gov; larep094@legis.la.gov; macks@legis.la.gov; millerg@legis.la.gov; montoucj@legis.la.gov; morenoh@legis.la.gov; larep001@legis.la.gov; morrisjc@legis.la.gov; nortonb@legis.la.gov; ortegos@legis.la.gov; pearsonk@legis.la.gov; pierrev@legis.la.gov; pontie@legis.la.gov; poper@legis.la.gov; pricee@legis.la.gov; pughs@legis.la.gov; pylants@legis.la.gov; reynoldsg@legis.la.gov; richardj@legis.la.gov; larep075@legis.la.gov; larep045@legis.la.gov; schexnayderc@legis.la.gov; schrodej@legis.la.gov; seabaugha@legis.la.gov; shadoinr@legis.la.gov; simons@legis.la.gov; smithp@legis.la.gov; larep060@legis.la.gov;  stokesj@legis.la.gov; talbotk@legis.la.gov; thibautm@legis.la.gov; thierryl@legis.la.gov; thompsonj@legis.la.gov; whitneyl@legis.la.gov; williamsa@legis.la.gov; larep004@legis.la.gov; willmott@legis.la.gov; woodruffe@legis.la.gov