Lou Campomenosi says, "Take Action Now" Reverse course of CCSI before it's too late!

[The Murphy Monkey]

Dear All: Tomorrow at our State TP meeting,I'll be speaking about the dangers of CCSSI and what we need to do to have the State Board of Education[SBOE] rescind the vote they took last November to join 40 plus states moving towards national standards and essentially,federal control of education. For those of us who have been opposed to the Obamnation presidency,this is just another example of the radicalization of another sector of American society as part of what the "progressives" have been trying to do for many years,but have now been able to effect changes that heretofore they could only dream about. But,all is not lost and if anything,what Obama has done has empowered our movement allowing us to awaken and gain the support of the heartland which knows we are right about the dangers posed by the radical leftists that have taken over the Senate and Executive branch of government. Last November was the first step in removing them and hopefully 2012 will complete the process, but as we work towards that end,other issues have to be addressed and I would argue that what Riley did last year to push a vote on CCSSI while he was a lame duck and when there were Board members who were on the way out,smacks of something a bit "untoward." In my dealings with this issue since the vote,it's pretty clear that Riley has a set of motivations that in fact led to his selling out whatever  conservative principles he was seen to have[and he did do some good things educationally--but,for me,what was left of his reputation has been lost with his support of CCSSI]. The most likely reason for this has to do with who is behind CCSSI and how those who are manipulating the states to join in[see doc# 1],are using big money to buy compliance. Strong words,I know,but after watching politics for as long as many of us have,I'm sure we're shocked,shocked to find out that Gates money is behind CCSSI and Riley wants Gates money for his ED FDN.
But that is not why I write--what Riley did is past history,but the vote he engineered has left us on the brink of losing control of education in our state and it happened under the radar! This is  what we must rally to in order to prevent losing control of education from happening. We can deal with slimy Riley later,but NOW we have to have the SBOE rescind last year's CCSSI  vote.
    I don't have time to get into the details of all of this--I have provided some background documents on this so you can school yourselves on what CCSSI means and who is behind it[also go to see: truthinamericaneducation.org]. Our problem is that the SBOE will begin discussing how to implement the "assessments" that go along with the curriculum changes in Math and English that CCSSI mandates. If you liked Judy Bloom books in the 70's you'll love what California is putting into schools about the "gay" lifestyle which will end up as part of the national standards that our kids will have to be subjected to! If you saw the fight Texas had about what textbooks would be used in history classes, get ready for the radical narrative about American History to take over what the kids are taught because once we concede control,it's over. I'm sure each of you could give us your own horror story,but the point is that the wolf is at the door and the question is what do we do?
  And that is where our TP movement comes into play. In conjunction with many conservatives in the state who have been fighting CCSSI since last year[two of the most important are SBOE members,Stephanie Bell and Betty Peters who voted against CCSSI],here is what I recommend we do immediately:
> Step one is to gather as many opponents of CCSSI as we can in as broad a coalition as possible to fight what has been done--this is already in progress. We have been told the ALGOP will pass a resolution condemning CCSSI and demanding that the SBOE rescind last year's vote. If that happens,then we have the GOP mobilizing with us to fight CCSSI. If they don't pass it for whatever reasons[I'll talk about that tomorrow,but if Riley wants CCSSI and he still has supporters around,well,you get the picture],we still have the president of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women [she drafted the resolution] with us and that means that her statewide organization will join with us to fight CCSSI. Additionally,there are GOP members in the Legislature,such as Scott Beason,Trip Pitman and Dick Brewbaker[to name a few],who are as opposed to this as we are[Beason and Brewbaker spoke against CCSSI to the SBOE last year] and they have said they will fight CCSSI in the legislature if it comes to that by not providing funding to go forward with CCSSI. And,importantly, we have Eagle Forum taking an active and critical role in helping us. In my view, this sort of broad based support is a key part of any successful attack on CCSSI--we need to have as many allies as we can find,especially ones that have internal communication links to get the word out and get people doing things.
*** This is time sensitive because the BOE is going through a search for a new superintendent. Due to Board rules,we now have an opportunity to have Bentley, as president of the Board, place on the agenda an  item to be voted on to revoke last year's vote on CCSSI. The feeling is that our window of opportunity will be in September until maybe mid-October,SO WE MUST ACT NOW--get the base motivated in August to have an impact in September when the SBOE meets!   
> Step two for us is to get as much information out to our members as possible--the documents I  have attached here will be posted to the HUB,but each TP group should post them on their websites[and any others they find!!] and send blasts out with the docs attached to make sure everyone reads them,or at least has an opportunity to see them--we need to educate our members about the dangers of CCSSI and let them digest the information as we go to the next step.
> Step three is to post on your websites a call to action by our members: write/call/email/visit their SBOE members. Please emphasize that we do not want to attack the Board Members who voted incorrectly on this--rather,we want our members to intelligently point out to their SBOE representative why CCSSI is not for Alabama and ask them to rescind what they did last year. Not only do we have to educate our people before they go forward,they may well find themselves in a position to educate their SBOE member who may be operating under some horribly wrong assumptions! As you'll see in some of the documents[see "dear gov bentley" letter--a working "ruff" below],since the CCSSI vote,there is a lot more information available that undermines any argument for going forward with CCSSI--of course our point all along has been that NO CONSERVATIVE SHOULD HAVE EVER GONE DOWN THIS ROAD--WE DON'T NEED MORE STUDIES TO POINT OUT THE OBVIOUS!!
> Step four,ask our members to lobby more than their SBOE members--flood Bentley's office with calls/emails/letters/visits by groups of concerned citizens--best if they have kids in school and perhaps some are local School Board members. Follow same approach with their state representatives in legislature in House and Senate--get them involved! DO SAME AT FEDERAL LEVEL--EAGLE FORUM REPORTS THAT HOUSE GOP WILL FIGHT CCSSI ON FUNDING ISSUE--GREAT!! WE SHOULD KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THEM WITH CALLS AND EMAILS! MARTHA ROBY IS ON HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE--LET HER KNOW WE OPPOSE CCSSI! Lastly,let Bill Armistead, who is Chair of ALGOP, know where we stand on CCSSI and ask for his support! His email is: [e-mail]
>Step five,ask your members to begin a letter writing campaign to their local papers and if possible,get on TV. I found that the Birmingham,Huntsville and Mobile papers all had editorials supporting last year's vote for CCSSI! We need to challenge them on that with fact based letters that argue from a position of principle that CCSSI is wrong--DC has no business controlling education any more than we have already allowed them to do--another issue,but part of same argument.
     In summary, I know we have many issues to deal with and so some  may say that this is just another one of many to handle--unfortunately,this issue will see us lose control of what our kids are taught in school and will set up a system by which all of us will have absolutely no say in anything about what takes place in school--so for me,this is a fundamental challenge that we need to focus on at least for the short term until we have the SBOE vote to rescind CCSSI. As a former principal of a Catholic school,I saw first hand what the formula for success is in a school and the last thing that would have contributed to any successful outcome was some distant bureaucrat issuing orders from on high. It makes my blood boil to think they are close to having their way here in our state,but we can STOP THEM IF WE ACT NOW TO RESCIND WHAT THEY DID LAST YEAR. PLEASE JOIN IN THE EFFORT! PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN--LET'S LIGHT UP THE STATE! Thanks,Lou

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