Why the Testing Craze in the United States for K-12 Students? It’s all about Corporate Profits, and Has Nothing to Do with Education, Accountability, or Standards

A few days ago, a public school teacher quit her job after fourteen years in education. Why? The profitable testing industry forced her out. She was tired of giving test upon test, more this year than last. Tests are not about accountability or standards. They’re all about increasing corporate profits, raising share prices, and enhancing dividends–at the expense of students, teachers, parents, administrators and taxpayers. That’s why the USA has the most tested K-12 students in the world, which is a reflection of how corrupt the US federal and state governments are.

Take the case of Pearson, the world’s largest education company.

According to the Financial Times on Nov 1, 2015,

“When millions of South African children start the new school year in January, they are likely to find that something is missing — textbooks.

Two of the country’s biggest provinces, Limpopo and Eastern Cape, are yet to place any orders with publishers.

The fallout is being felt about 6,000 miles to the north — at Pearson, the world’s largest education company, based in London…. Next year its testing business will be badly hit by the recent loss of flagship contracts in Texas and Ohio, worth £100m. It was the first time in 30 years the company had lost the Texas business, with state legislators raising concerns about past cost overruns…. Pearson is not just big — it is hugely diverse. A company assembled by acquisition, it produces textbooks and teaching software; runs school exams and entire university courses; and owns chains of schools teaching languages and professional qualifications.” See Pearson’s strategy comes under fire after share price collapse–/Financial Times

This year, Pearson has seen its profits decline, and its share prices have been hit as well, thanks to those South African children, and legislators in Texas and Ohio. Pearson’s stock price is the red line in the graph below. This line means more investors are selling Pearson stock than are purchasing it. So they need more children to take more tests to get their profits and stock price to rise.

The Financial Times says two things are causing this profit decline. The US economy is picking up steam, and so people are working rather than going to universities to enhance job skills. Number two is the opposition to Common Core standards by Republican state legislatures.

The more testing, the more money Pearson takes in. And what is good for Pearson and its shareholders is not good for students, since the higher the educational standards, the more students fail, the more they have to retake the tests, the more profits Pearson and other educational corporations garner. So naturally, companies such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill are always pushing legislators to raise standards, and they’re going to continue to do so. This is their only way of enhancing their share prices, and that’s why the teacher alluded to above quit her job. She’d had enough.

She wrote at the end of her letter:

“My next step? Not sure yet. I do know that it is a disgrace that we are allowing companies from the testing industry to make millions of dollars (actually tens of billions) off the abuse of our public education system. Not only are we killing the spirits of students who want to learn, but we are also killing the spirits of teachers that want to make a life-long career of this. I’m not the first one to give up and I certainly won’t be the last. In 10-20 years, we are going to look back at this time in education and be very ashamed of what we have allowed to happen.

Finally, please hope and pray that my kids get a qualified teacher quickly. One that isn’t jaded by the system, that loves them in spite of their challenges, and has the strength to withstand the foolishness that educators endure. I couldn’t be that for them anymore and the grief that causes me is suffocating at times. I will miss them every day. This quote helps when the feelings become overwhelming, “Be OK with not knowing for sure what might come next, but know that whatever it is…you will be OK”.

Click here to see the complete letter of the teacher and why she quit.

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Who and What Is ISIS? Government Corruption and Corporate Lies Exposed as A Pastor Takes on the Corporate Propaganda Machine

THE PARIS ATTACKS

by Chuck Baldwin

“Paris, France: Muslim terrorists took the lives of over 120 people. Here are my observations:

I am aghast and flummoxed at the number of Americans who just cannot seem to comprehend the culpability that the U.S. government has in all of this. This only makes sense when one takes into account that the vast majority of Americans only know what the mainstream media tells them. And, without question, our mainstream media is nothing more than a propaganda ministry for Washington, D.C. Without a doubt, the controlled major media in America rivals the controlled major media of Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Make no mistake about it: the wars in the Middle East are Washington’s wars. The refugee crisis is the direct result of Washington’s wars. G.W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the continued violent attacks by the Obama administration throughout the Middle East–not to mention, the direct intervention of, and supervision by, the CIA, British intelligence, the Israeli Mossad, and the governments of Turkey and Saudi Arabia–created ISIS. Furthermore, these governmental entities have all helped to arm, sustain, equip, supply–and medically care for–ISIS terrorists.

One needs to understand that violent Muslims have been killing other Muslims for centuries. In fact, the vast majority of the people killed by violent Muslims are other Muslims–NOT Christians and Jews. What happened in Paris happens routinely in Syria.”

Click on the following link for the rest of the story. The Paris Attacks–Chuck Baldwin

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Another Example of How Income is Redistributed from the 99 to the 1 Percent Via Senator Ron Wyden and the Rest of the Corrupt US Government

Here’s the story.

Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden was elected to represent the people of Oregon in the US senate. Instead, the senator represents Wall Street, along with major out-of-state corporations. This is why Wyden is one of the major tools the rich use in the US senate in their war against the middle class.

That’s precisely why Wyden always votes to redistribute income from the 99 to the 1 percent via legislatively approved policies falsely marketed as free trade agreements. The latest Wyden income redistribution scam is called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest income redistribution scam from the 99 to the 1 percent in US history.

This month, thanks to Wyden’s votes in the senate, the Newberg Oregon Paper Mill will be closing, resulting in the loss of 250 family-wage jobs and the largest tax source for the Newberg community. In all likelihood, in the next few months most the paper mill closure will cause a domino effect, resulting in the loss of several times as many jobs as those that are lost at the mill, as families are no longer able to afford to go to restaurants, get the car fixed and more, hurting local businesses that these family-wage union jobs support. Offshoring in the private sector also means less tax revenue in the public sector, leading to budget deficits, furloughs and layoffs of public employees, as well as less money for schools, roads, libraries, fire-departments and other critical public services. Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden is directly responsible for this situation through his votes on international income redistribution votes in the US congress.

All products manufactured at the Newberg mill were 100% recycled paper products made from recycled paper and wood gathered from the greater Portland, Oregon area. This mill was one of the last paper recycling facilities in Oregon and the recycled paper and wood once processed there will now likely be shipped and processed in countries with weak environmental policies.

The difference between the old higher US wages and the new lower third world wages will go straight into the already fat pockets of the super rich via higher corporate profits, rising share prices and surging dividends, thanks to Wyden’s votes. And also thanks to Wyden, because the 1 percent are now stealing over 37 percent of all the income in the US, compared to 21 percent in 2008, and 8 percent back in 1980.

What could be worse than this?

The worse-than-NAFTA TPP threatens to offshore more Oregon and US jobs by the millions, further driving down wages and further harming the environment. Wyden has carefully rammed this disaster for Oregonians through the US senate, although most Oregonians oppose it.

Enough is enough. Click here to urge your Member of Congress to vote against the TPP and click here to RSVP for the carpool from Portland to the December 8th rally in Newberg against the TPP.

Join Oregon Fair Trade and other organizations, people and trade-displaced mill workers on Tuesday, December 8th — the anniversary of NAFTA (an income redistribution scam voted for by then Wall Street Congressman Ron Wyden)— to voice Oregon’s opposition to the worse-than-NAFTA income redistribution scam falsely marketed as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement.

Tues, December 8th:

11:00 AM – Photo op outside closing Newberg paper mill

11:30 AM – Speaker’s panel with trade displaced mill workers

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17 European nations and 4 areas ban GM Crops

Brussels – In the latest blow to the European Commission’s laissez-faire approach to GM crops, 17 EU countries and four regions (in two other countries) banned the cultivation of GM poisons (known as crops) on their territories.

The 17 EU countries are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia. The four regional administrations are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the UK, and Wallonia in Belgium. They notified the European Commission of their intention to ban GM crop cultivation under new EU rules [1].

This brings the total number of countries who have already declared their intention to put in place GM crop bans to 17 – plus four regions – representing over 65 per cent of the EU’s population and 65 per cent of its arable land.

The bans apply to the only GM crop currently approved for cultivation in Europe – Monsanto’s pesticide-producing GM maize, known as MON810 – but also to the seven GM crops awaiting approval by the Commission. These are all unhealthy GM maizes.

Nine EU countries (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Poland) had previously banned cultivation of MON810 under so-called safeguard clauses.

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Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden: Leading the Fight in the US Senate to Steal Our Voting Rights and Our Money, and Hand Them Over to the 1 Percent

US Senator of Wall Street Ron Wyden wants to eliminate your voting rights, and redistribute your income to the 1 percent. And he knows exactly what he’s doing, as you can tell by the film below. He doesn’t even deny the accusations on this matter when confronted by a citizen of Oregon at a town hall in January 2015. He simply avoided the answer to the question over six boring minutes.

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will steal your voting rights on many issues. It will also redistribute massive amounts of income from the 99 percent, and stuff that money straight into the pockets of the 1 percent. Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden knows this, and yet, he was the right hand man of President Obama to hustle the TPP out of the Senate Trade and Finance Committees. He is also the person who pushed Fast Track Authority through the US senate. Fast Track forces congress into an up or down vote on the TPP, limits debate, and stops the filibuster from being implemented when the TPP comes up for a vote in the US Senate. The final version of the TPP was introduced to congress a week or so ago, and the text of this international income and voting rights redistribution scam are being reviewed.

We know, as has Wall Street and its senator, the TPP will unconstitutionally allow foreign corporations to challenge US laws that the management of these corporations deem to negatively impact their alleged future profits. Such cases will be tried in secret corporate established tribunals.

If the citizen’s of a state or county vote to establish mandatory GMO labeling laws, for example, and a GMO company decides that this will negatively impact their future profits, that company can sue the state in Wyden’s secret tribunals. If the company wins, the state will have two options; pay the difference between what the company says its future profits if the law didn’t exist, and what the profits were before the law goes into effect, or rescinding your voting rights by eliminating the law.

In other words, your vote will be rescinded, or you will need to pay a foreign corporation every year in perpetuity to enact such a law.

So if a company is selling a gasoline additive, and poisoning the ground water of a state, and killing people with it, and the state legislators or the voters decide to eliminate the poison from their state, the same financial situation will crop up. Be poisoned and in the process lose your voting rights on the issue, if you lose in the secret tribunal, or pay forever a foreign corporation to exercise your right to vote, which is nothing more than an illegal and unconstitutional poll tax in perpetuity.

A US trade treaty can override US law, but only if it receives 67 votes in the US Senate. That’s why the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is legally called an agreement, rather than a treaty. NAFTA didn’t get 67 votes in the senate. Don’t ask me why the US Supreme Court has ruled that an agreement between two nations is not a treaty, but it has ruled this way, and don’t ask me why foreign corporations are allowed to sue state and local governments in NAFTA’s secret tribunals, since clearly such a process is overriding US laws, and NAFTA only received 62 votes in the senate. Okay, it’s called the corporate takeover and corruption of the US supreme court.

Regardless, that’s how Wyden is intending to illegally steal your right to vote, and all on behalf of his Wall Street masters. This year he has brought the TPP to the brink of a vote in the US Senate and the US House of Representatives. It’s time for folks to start calling their senators and representatives.

Only an insane or totally corrupted person would want to continue following the same trade policies that have redistributed massive amounts of income and voting rights from the 99 to the 1 percent and brought us to the most massive and destabilizing income inequality and historically high trade deficits in US history. Take your pick. Are the supporters of this income redistribution scam insane or corrupt?

As an aside, and as a final note, since 2009, the 1 percent has stolen 95 percent of all US income growth. In 2008, the 1 percent stole 21 percent of all income produced in the USA, up from 8 percent in 1980. This year the 1 percent is stealing 37 percent + of all the income produced in the United States. What do they do with that money? They corrupt your politicians and Supreme Court justices, and the legislation that flows from the US congress, and the white house. In other words, that money is used to rig the economic, political and financial games against the 99 percent.

Think about these numbers. They mean that the 99 percent went from earning 92 percent of all US income in 1980, to 79 percent in 2008, to 63 percent in 2015.

Do you feel like your working more and earning less? Where has your retirement gone? Where are the jobs? Why haven’t the 99 percent received a raise in pay when factoring inflation since 1980? Why are housing prices so high? The above numbers are the answers to every one of the these questions and more, and Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden is one of the main culprits as to why these negative things are occurring.

As for how Wall Street Ronnie plans to steal your money, see what-the-corporate-new-media-refuses-to-tell-the-public-about-the-trans-pacific-partnership-its-a-massive-income-redistribution-agreement-that-will-drive-the-middle-class-further-into-poverty–JohnHively.wordpress.com

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Mexican Courts Deal Monsanto Double Defeat: GMO Corn Cannot be Grown or Sold in Mexico

Opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have claimed victory after Mexico’s Supreme Court blocked last week a move that would allow the cultivation of GMO soy in the Mexican states of Campeche and Yucatan. In a separate appeals court decision, a federal judge upheld a 2013 ruling that barred companies such as Monsanto and DuPont/Pioneer from planting or selling their GMO corn within the country’s borders.

See the full story at Mexican Courts Deal Monsanto Double Body Blow–Ecowatch.com

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The Text of the Trans Pacific Partnership is Released and the Scam is Worse than You Can Imagine for the 99 Percent

According to Ecowatch.com,

The text of the Trans Pacific Partnership is out and the news isn’t good for the 99 percent. The TPP will steal your voting rights on the state and local levels, because it will weaken consumer protections, undermine U.S. food safety standards and prevent commonsense food labeling. The language included in the TPP is more aggressive than previous trade deals and provides broad new powers for other countries and foreign corporations to challenge U.S. food safety and food labeling measures. In other words, the TPP will override any laws on these issues you vote for on the state and local levels.

In reality, the TPP would be a violation of the US Constitution, unless 67 US senators vote for it. which is required by the US Constitution. However, the corrupt corporate wing of the US Supreme Court will rule in any challenge to the TPP, should it become law, that persons challenging the illegal provisions of the TPP will need to prove they have been damaged. In other words, the court has ruled that if your government is doing something illegal, such as the illegal domestic spying by the NSA, and its very profitable contractors, you need to prove that you have been personally damaged by the illegal activity. The court will continue to support the illegal activities of the government so long as these activities are profitable to large corporations and investors.

“The TPP is a giveaway to big agribusiness and food companies that want to use trade deals to attack sensible food safety rules, weaken the inspection of imported food and block efforts to strengthen U.S. food safety standards. The food and agribusiness industries inserted language into the text of the TPP that will undermine U.S. food safety oversight and expose consumers to risky imported foods.”

The TPP will also lead to the loss of millions of American jobs. Those jobs will be exported, and the difference between the old US wages and the new Chinese and Vietnamese wages will be redistributed to the 1 percent via higher corporate earnings, stock prices and dividends. See What the Corporate News Media Refuses to Tell the Public About The Trans-Pacific Partnership: It’s a Massive Income Redistribution Agreement That Will Drive the Middle Class Further into Poverty, While Enriching the Already Wealthy, And Driving Millions of People into the United States Illegally to Depress US Wages Even More–JohnHively.wordpress.com

This TPP scam is Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden’s baby. Thank you Wall Street Ronnie!

Read the full story by clicking on the following link, TPP Text Reveals Broad New Powers for Corporations to Attack Food Labeling Laws–Ecowatch.org

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The Coming Recession and US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s “Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act (SAVE Benefits Act)”

On January 1st, for just the third time since 1975, seniors who receive Social Security won’t be getting an annual cost of living adjustment. Neither will millions of other Americans whose veterans’ benefits, disability benefits, and other monthly payments are pegged to Social Security.

So today, US Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced the Seniors and Veterans Emergency Benefits Act (SAVE Benefits Act) to give seniors, vets, and other Social Security recipients a one-time 3.9% payment in 2016 — the same raise that America’s top CEOs received last year. The bill is paid for entirely by closing a tax loophole that allows corporations to write off obscene executive bonuses as a business expense for “performance pay” — a loophole that would generate so much revenue “…that we could give every senior this $581 check and still have money left over to extend the life of the Social Security trust fund. Watch Warren’s floor speech introducing this bill and ask your representatives to give seniors and veterans the support they need on January 1st.

This bill is really important inasmuch as it would act as an economic stimulus at a time when the economy is beginning to stagger toward recession. We’re looking at about 18 months or less. That recession will be the worst since the Great Depression, and it likely will bring on grassroots coalitions in a way not seen since the Great Recession.

The great threat looming against a US economic recovery is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest income and wealth redistribution scam (from the 99 to the 1 percent) in US history, which is falsely being labeled an international trade agreement. This massive scam is the brain child of Wall Street President Barack Obama, and Wall Street Senator’s Ron Wyden, Mitch McConnell and Orrin Hatch, among other toadies of Wall Street. Hopefully, the TPP can be defeated.

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Bring it on! The First Bernie Sanders Presidential Advertisement

US Middle Class Senator Bernie Sanders unleashed his first presidential campaign advertisement on Sunday. It’s playing in Iowa and New Hampshire.

As is common for campaigns, this first ad is thoroughly positive, introducing voters who may not be familiar with Sanders to his biography and background. It begins by calling Sanders “the son of a Polish immigrant who grew up in a Brooklyn tenement,” and displays some shots of him as a child and teenager.

The advertisement plays up Sanders constant battle in the US senate against the war waged by the 1 percent against the middle class. The ad also points out that Sanders voted against the Iraq war, which anybody who wasn’t dumb, corrupt, or naive would have done. The ad doesn’t mention that Sanders main democratic opponent (and darling of Wall Street), Hillary Rodham Clinton, voted for the war without reservation.

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