Conservative groups around the country seem to be embracing Betsy DeVos and Corey DeAngelis as they continue to push for school choice for parents. One might think that they are allies in helping parents find alternative schools for their children who may be struggling in the public school system.
While many of us want to make sure that a child bullied in a public school has an alternative, researchers will warn you that some of these school choice programs are being put in place to help UNESCO control private and parochial schools. I wrote about how that happens here, here, and here. Those who want school choice for families do not always realize that they may be supporting a UN agenda to control the private and religious schools. That’s why you need to understand what is going on and who the players are.
New Hampshire currently has two school choice programs in place for families who need alternative schools for their children. As Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards dumb dow the public schools, families are looking for a better quality education for their children. The social engineering, political indoctrination, and gender ideology hasve also resulted in more families fleeing the public schools. So what’s so bad about supporting school choice programs in your state?
As I mentioned, New Hampshire currently has two school choice programs in place. Neither one is a voucher program but when funding students comes out of the state budget, there is a high risk that those funds could include strings (or regulations) that would help progressives control the private and parochial schools.
For instance in the New Hampshire EFA (Education Freedom Account) program, one of the key regulations that would allow or UNESCO to control private and religious schools is the testing provision. The EFA program requires the EFA student that uses state funds to pay for tuition to a private or religious school, to take a standardized test.
Here is the provision in New Hampshire’s EFA law. The student has three options:
(A) Having the student take a nationally-standardized, norm-referenced achievement test and to provide the results to the scholarship organization by the end of each school year which the scholarship organization shall make available to the department as aggregate scores; or
(B) Having the student take the statewide student assessment test pursuant to RSA 193-C:6; or
(C) Maintaining a portfolio including, but not limited to, a log which designates by title the reading materials used; samples of writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student. The parent shall have a certified teacher or a teacher currently teaching in a nonpublic school, who is selected by the parent, evaluate the student’s educational progress upon review of a portfolio and discussion with the parent or student.
If this provision only required (B) where EFA students would all take the state standardized test, the state would become the organization that will hold private and religious schools accountable. New Hampshire currently uses a Common Core aligned state standardized test. Those results would then be used to push for curriculum changes in the private and religious schools. That’s what happened in states like Indiana and Ohio. Voucher students were forced to take the Common Core aligned state standardized test and those results were used to push private and religious schools to align their curriculum to the test. Christian, private and other religious schools began aligning their curriculum to the dumbed down Common Core standards.
In the New Hampshire law, you can see that (A) and (C) offer alternative accountability measures or tests. That’s good. This means that these schools still maintain some level of autonomy. If one state standardized test is used, those proficiency results are used to get the private and religious schools to conform to Common Core. In other words, if the program requires the EFA student to only take the state standardized test, then UNESCO wins, and now has the ability to control the private and religious schools that accept EFA students. Right now, we have language in the law that helps prevent that power grab.
But what happens when power shifts in the state legislature? If Democrats take control of the House, Senate, and Governor’s office, would they want to eliminate (A) and (C) so that EFA students would only be required to take the State Standardized Test? You can count on it. Democrats in the legislature always refer to the state standardized test as the accountability measure they want attached to state dollars that make their way to religious an private schools.
In Lisa Logan’s article on UNESCO’s vision for School Choice, she lays out the plan by UNESCO to use school choice programs as a way to control private and religious schools. It is the testing mechanism that will allow for this to happen. New Hampshire has the program in place, all progressives will need to do is revise the state statute and eliminate (A) and (C) from the law. Legislators do this every year—they revise the state statute.
Currently private and religious schools will not feel the pressure to conform to Common Core because the testing provisions (A) and (C) provide offers alternative tests. But all it will take is a change in the current law to make a change to this program. If Democrats take control of the House, Senate and Governor’s office at some point in the future, they could tweak the language, hire a new Commissioner who shares the UNESCO vision of using these programs to regulate the private and religious schools, and we no longer provide authentic choice for parents. Those private and religious schools will begin aligning their curriculum to Common Core to keep those EFA students in their schools. We’ve seen this in other states that use state funds for their school voucher programs.
The UNESCO agenda to control private and religious schools is detailed here in UNESCO’s Vision for School Choice:
UNESCO’s solution is to #RighttheRules, urging governments to “see all institutions, students and teachers as part of a single system. Standards, information, incentives and accountability should help governments protect, respect and fulfill the right to education of all, without turning their eyes away from privilege or exploitation.” It’s clear that they view the infusion of public money into private education as their opportunity to fix the inequities arising from school choice and institute educational pluralism: a school system in which the government funds and regulates, but does not necessarily provide, public education. In essence, this #RighttheRules campaign in concert with the school choice movement is a power grab to allow governments to regulate far more in the private education sphere than they’ve been able to in the past, including enforcement of their equity and inclusion initiatives.
And here from UNESCO:
The new 2021/2 @GEMReport shows that many countries lack adequate regulations on private education or the capacity to enforce them, undermining quality and widening the educational divide between rich and poor #RighttheRules bit.ly/2021gemreport
The 2021/2 @GEMReport makes 5 recommendations to help #RighttheRules and ensure that equity in education is protected in financing, quality, governance, innovation and policymaking bit.ly/2021gemreport
Betsy DeVos and Corey DeAngelis
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos signed on to the global UNESCO agenda which you can read about here:
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos signed on to a radical global “declaration” that calls for, among other absurdities, brainwashing children to believe in the United Nations-backed ideology of total government known as “ ‘sustainable development.” In fact, the pseudo-treaty inked by Trump’s education chief suggests that the purpose of schooling is to indoctrinate children with the right “values” and teach them to be obedient worker drones.
That means more data collection on your children, and:
The signers, including DeVos, agreed to “promote the development of curricula … which have a strong focus on … values and attitudes.” They also committed to “foster the inclusion of non-cognitive skills such as socio-emotional skills across the curriculum,” which is basically educrat psycho-babble to conceal a program of psychological conditioning aiming to bring about the values and attitudes demanded by the establishment in all children.
We know UNESCO has an agenda to push school choice programs so that they can use those programs to control the private and religious schools. We know that the former U.S.Secretary of Education signed on to the UNESCO agenda and is currently making the rounds pushing school choice programs too.
Finally, you can see that Core DeAngelis is also in on this gig. As you can see here, UNESCO features DeAngelis on their web site:
Corey DeAngelis has been championing school choice for many years. DeAngelis is the national director of research at the DeVos-founded American Federation for Children. https://betsydevos.com/about-betsy/
Devos served as Chairman of American Federation for Children (2009 to 2016). While she no longer serves this organization, DeAngelis continues to work closely with DeVos on this important issue.
The New Hampshire EFA school choice program does try to avoid the UNESCO pitfall, but a change to the legislature can change the program to a position where UNESCO would be able to push their political agenda on the private and religious schools. Had Betsy DeVos been successful in implementing her school choice program at the federal level, President Joe Biden would be in charge of that program today.
The Obama administration used Title IX grant money to push transgender bathroom policies on public schools across American. Title IX was set up so that local public schools could use federal dollars to add more sports programs for girls. This would help girls access more college scholarships. The Obama administration then used the Title IX federal dollars, to force public schools to adopt transgender policies. That’s how UNESCO plans to control the private and religious schools. The EFA dollars to force compliance in the private and religious schools.
Who will help UNESCO in those efforts? Betsy DeVos and Corey DeAngelis.
To the conservative organizations lining up these two globalists to speak on behalf of school choice, understand that your vision of helping children escape poorly run public schools is very different then their vision. Their vision opens the door to UNESCO controlling private and parochial schools. That’s not school choice, that’s a government power grab. That’s not liberty, that’s more government intrusion into our private and religious schools. That’s not freedom, that’s a globalist agenda. This doesn’t just impact private and religious schools but can also creep into the home-school community too.
You cannot stop the strings because the U.S. Department of Education exists, and is now partnered with UNESCO. The State Departments of Education ceded state control of public education when they adopted Common Core reforms in 2010. The federal education law, Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires the U.S. Secretary of Education to approve all state education plans.
All of the U.S. Department of Education’s nonprofits are behind states funding follow the child bills, that should tell you something. People similar to Soros fund some of the school choice organizations, Bill Gates being one of them. And with the help of the so-called conservatives like Betsy DeVos and Corey DeAngelis parents will not have authentic choice in education, but now an intrusion into private, religious and even possibly home-schools too.
