As an education researcher, I see Republican Governors fall for education fads pushed by education reformers all the time. Competency-based Education is one of those fads in New Hampshire that does nothing to improve the quality of education in our public schools.
When private schools reject these fads, there is a reason for that. If these fads were so great, homeschoolers and private schools would already be incorporating them into their school day.
Governor Doug Burgum is supposed to be on the short list of Vice President choices by Trump. This would be an enormous mistake because of what he did in North Dakota. Read about that here.
During Obama’s presidency, he said he was going to redesign public education. Most people probably missed that but those of us who know what this means, were not pleased. He was going to redesign public education into a workforce training model.
The workforce model is the dumbing down of public education which started with the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. After 14 years of this nonsense, our students still cannot compete with students in high-performing countries. But maybe academic excellence wasn’t the goal of Bill Gates, and the other education reformers.
Federal law (Every Student Succeeds Act) pushes more technology on students in the classroom. Where has this helped improve academic outcomes? It does profit the technology industry. Not only does the Ed Technology Industry benefit from the sales of its products, they are also able to data mine information on your children through the software.
If you look at the privacy policies attached to the Ed Tech Vendors, they are NOT private. It is true that Ed Tech Vendors follow the student privacy law, FERPA, but that law now has a LARGE gaping loophole in it. Schools are required to keep personal information private but there are now “exceptions” in the law. This makes it easier for tech companies and others on that list, to access your child’s personal information. The Federal Government is already set up to collect massive amounts of personal data on your children.
What does this have to do with Governor Burgum? Answer: He’s facilitating all of this in his state of North Dakota.
In a blog post from 2018, They’ve got trouble, up there in North Dakota, it goes through Burgum’s education policies while serving as Governor. It’s important to note that Burgum was elected with the financial assistance of Bill Gates:
A self-styled outsider candidate, Burgum won the governorship in 2016, with financial backing from Bill Gates, his largest campaign contributor.
Why would Gates put so much money into Burgum to serve as Governor? The same Gates who was working with disgraced Governor Cuomo to implement his workforce model in New York? The same financier of the failed, and dumbed down Common Core Standards?
In this article, you can see how Gov. Cuomo was working hand in hand with Gates’ to shift public education towards technology. Gov. Cuomo was implementing “Education Reimagined,” Which is the blueprint that Gates would like to implement in all local schools.
This blueprint would eliminate teachers who would be replaced by facilitators. That shift has already started because this pedagogy is pushed in our Schools of Education, and many grant organizations require it. You can see that on page 10 in the column “role of adults.” Some might think this is a good idea but there are many reasons why we should avoid this.
As technology replaces a teacher in the classroom, more information directed at children will come from their digital device. Parents already have a disadvantage by not being able to examine textbooks. What are their children learning? Screen time has become a bigger issue that concerns many parents. How do they take away the device in the evening if this is how they have to do their homework? It’s used as a way for students to cyber bully, and share naked photos of each other. Digitalized books are available through the school library APP that includes pornographic and obscene content.
You might be surprised to find out that the heads of the two largest teachers’ unions in the country signed on to Education Reimagined. Go to the last page and you will see signatures from Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lily Eskelsen, President of the National Education Association. Most teachers have no idea that their union representation signed on to making the teaching profession obsolete. These were the same people who fought to keep public schools closed during the pandemic. It makes you wonder why they were so eager to close public schools and send kids to the YMCA with a facilitator. Oh wait, that’s in the plan!
I suggest reading through this article on Burgum. Everything he did in North Dakota appears to follow the Gates education agenda. They even admit in the short video that this is an experiment on your children.
When I began researching education over two decades ago, everything led back to money. Who will profit from these changes and fads? This isn’t about what’s good for children. It’s about how much profit these vendors will make off of your child. What will the federal government do with all of this information on your children, especially since they can now share that data with the U.S. Department of Labor and other agencies?
Technology is a good thing, but that can be taught in a separate class. Right now, the 1:1 Chromebooks and iPads are creating new problems for students. No one is willing to discuss any of this. Old computers are causing an enormous amount of waste for landfills, and are costly to maintain and replace.
Bill Gates got Common Core WRONG. But did he? If he never intended to improve public education but instead dumbed it down for workforce training, then he is right on target. Common Core was adopted in New Hampshire in 2010. You can see on the national assessment NAEP, there has been no improvement in public education. This was a big failed experiment on your kids.
Instead of learning from this mistake, they are doubling down. If Burgum becomes Vice President, it looks like Gates’ investment in him will really pay off—not for your children.
