Governor Snyder said in his 2011 State of the State Addresss,
“We’ve been spending money without delivering the results to give our young people a bright future. It is time that we view our educational system which runs from pre-natal to lifelong learning. It’s time to start talking about P-20 instead of just K-12. We need to establish a system that focuses on real achievement for all of our children. ”
He reiterated his vision in 2013,
“I want to emphasize a vision of P-20. A PRENATAL to life long learning. We have to get beyond the old models of saying there are silos for for K12, silos for community college, for higher ed, for preschool. They shouldn’t be separate. They can be separate institutions. not to threaten the institutions. But shouldn’t we make it a seamless system. Where a student in that system doesn’t have to figure out all these tough choices but can just focus on success…and understanding it starts even at the prenatal stage and looking at is the expectant mother getting the right diet, the right primary care…” (emphasis added.)
Holland Public Schools has hopped on board Governor Snyder’s P-20 train through the Cradle-to-Career Initiative. The graphic on their website, copied below says it all.
Looking at this graphic makes it easier to understand many of the recent initiatives enacted in Michigan. The initiatives listed below may appear disconnected but together they build the P-20 cradle-to-career education pathway envisioned by President Obama, Governor Snyder, major corporations, and many others.
- The Early Learning Challenge,
- Common Core State Standards,
- Kindergarten Entry Assessments,
- Smarter Balanced Assessments (pending),
- ACT Aspire (promoted by MASSP)
- Third-Grade Reading Retention,
- Educational/Career Development Plans,
- Michigan Merit Exam with ACT and WorkKeys (Career Readiness Certification),
- Subject Tests (possibly College Board SAT used for teacher evaluation at high school level.)
- Teacher evaluations
- Next Generation Science Standards
- Career Pathways and credentialing (STEM is the first)
- College and university quality standards
The cradle to career scheme is designed for a managed economy that meets the demand of the state not the dreams of the child. As students travel the P-20 pathway, their data is collected and stored in Governor Snyder’s P-20 State Longitudinal Data System and shared with whoever may have a legitimate educational interest. Data drives the decisions from birth into the workforce.
The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) insures that their education data will be connected to the workforce.
DQC encourages states to securely link their prekindergarten through grade 12 systems with postsecondary and workforce systems. This way states can better understand student pathways from early childhood programs through K–12 to postsecondary and as they enter into their careers.
Cradle-to-Career education for workforce development is wrong
and contradicts the very purpose of education as defined in the Michigan Constitution.
“Sec. 1. Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
Hillsdale Professor Daniel Coupland correctly identified exactly where this all leads in his lecture on common core:
“As long as students are told that the end of education is a job or a career, they will forever be servants of some master….We are not programming machines. We are teaching children. We are not producing functionaries, factory-like. We are to be forming the minds and hearts of men and women… to be human beings, honoring what is good and right and cherishing what is beautiful.”
Common Core and the entire P-20 cradle-to-career scheme destroys true school choice, local control, educational freedom, and our children’s minds and hearts. We must defeat it now or forever be enslaved to it.
Action Plan:
1. Opt-out of any common core aligned assessment. This includes pilot assessments, state assessments, interest surveys, career development plans, SBAC, MEAP, and any other Common Core aligned assessment that helps build the P-20 pathway. A model form for opting out is available here: MI_opt_out_form-1
2. Vote-out any pro-common core lawmaker or candidate. Common Core must be the litmus test issue in all races.
3. Organize a Stop Common Core event in your area. Speakers are available and ready to help make this issue front and center in your community.
4. Use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to inform your friends and family about Common Core and the cradle-to-career education scheme. Share our posts and help make 2015 the year Michigan repeals Common Core!