A Modern Woman's Perspective On The Kingdom of God on Earth


May 22, 2013

The End of CSCOPE In Texas. I Want To Celebrate, But ......

     On Monday, the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC), the governing body of the controversial CSCOPE curriculum, bowed to pressure from the Texas State Senate and agreed to contact all their clients and remove the disputed online lesson plans from their website.
     CSCOPE was an educational system that had infiltrated nearly 70 percent of Texas school districts, and had come under sharp criticism for a lack of transparency from public review.  Furthermore, the lesson plans showed a bias against Christianity, while promoting and justifying Islam, along with many other cultural biases against traditional American beliefs.  Many brave teachers broke the vow of silence they were forced to honor and partnered with parents concerned over their children's education, and, together, they took their concerns to the Texas State Senate.  With the help of State Senator Dan Patrick and Attorney General Greg Abbott, they were able to stop CSCOPE in its tracks.  (See my previous post for more details on the controversy surrounding this curriculum.)
     Earlier this year, CSCOPE had agreed to make the meetings of their governing board open to the public and to work with the State Board of Education (SBOE), who would act as an oversight committee in reviewing the various curriculum.  After much testimony and review, it was determined that the State of Texas didn't like what they were seeing ... not at all!   So, according to a press release issued yesterday by State Senator Patrick, the Governing Board of CSCOPE will now notify their 875 school district clients that they are pulling all lesson plans and furthermore, there will be no new plans produced in the future.  The various Education Service Centers that provided the lesson plans will now return to their original business plan of providing a management tool for teachers to stay on schedule regarding the teaching of the required TEKS test.   The TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) tests are the state standards by which each child is tested and evaluated in the state of Texas.  (That's another controversial can of worms!)
     Now, if you know anything at all about CSCOPE, this is undoubtedly reason to celebrate, right?  We, here in the Lone Star State, have successfully eradicated a cancer from the midst of our educational system and everything should be alright with the world.  BUT, I can't quite put my finger on it; something doesn't feel right, and I have this instinct that whoever is behind the CSCOPE curriculum isn't going to just roll over and give up that easily.
     Let me just say that I am not an investigative journalist, and far from an intrepid reporter, but in just doing a minimal amount of research to uncover the origins and the accomplices in the development of CSCOPE, there are some things that just don't add up, and others that lead down interesting paths that need more scrutiny than I am able to provide.
     First of all, CSCOPE's website states that their governing board (and essentially sales staff), the TESCCC, "is not funded by any special interest group/organization or any federal or state agency."  But the products they promote and sell can be purchased using federal funds made available through the No Child Left Behind program.  I think we have seen how the federal government can intimidate the states with threats of withholding funds.  So while CSCOPE may not be directly funded by a federal or state agency, school districts could be encouraged to purchase the curricula ... or else.  Mind you, I have no proof, nor am I making any allegations; it's just that considering the rampant corruption that surrounds lobbying in our governmental system, this scenario is not outside the realm of possibility.
     And then there is the matter of the vendor/partners that the governing body cites as just a small portion of the revenue generated from CSCOPE.  Maybe it's just me, but can't you tell a lot about a person by the people he associates with?  Same holds true for your business partners, right?
     Well, some of the vendors listed on their vendor/partner site are quite interesting.  For instance, Ignite!Learning is an educational software/hardware company that was co-founded in 1999 by Neil Bush, younger brother of George W.  The funding for his company came, naturally from Papa Bush, but also from businessmen in Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, and a Russian billionaire (Boris Berezovsky) who was an outspoken critic of Putin and Communism, until he died mysteriously in England, where he had been granted political asylum.  And let's not forget the United Arab Emirates; those Saudi's... they just love American educational tools.
     Not that there's anything illegal about receiving your funding from foreign investors; I just find it ironic that Mr. Bush could find no Americans who were willing to invest in educational tools for American children.  But perhaps I'm just too cynical.
     Also listed among the CSCOPE partner/vendors was PASCO, a company that partners with educators around the world to support "curriculum integration, customized planning and systemic professional development".   And what seemed funny to me, was that every CSCOPE partner listed has been approved in just the last four years.  It's almost as though there has been a concerted effort in this last administration to take the curriculum and education of our children out of our local jurisdictions and take it to a global level.  Let's not forget the Common Core Initiative, whose goal is to wrest the Constitutional authority for education away from the States, localities and parents (where it correctly resides), and place it under the control of the federal government.
     So, while I applaud the Texas State Senate and the State Board of Education for taking this bold and necessary step, forgive me if I'm just a little suspicious that CSCOPE folded so easily.  When you start uncovering the layers, more questions just appear.   And I'm honestly afraid that based on the "players" and the funding sources, "they" are just biding their time until they can remap their strategy and implement a One World Educational System.  CSCOPE may be gone for today, but what will emerge tomorrow?  And just one last thought --- make sure CSCOPE is not lurking undercover in your own backyard.


Proverbs 22:6      "Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it."

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