Karen Bracken
By David Tulis
A Common Core critic in the Chattanooga area appears to have made an important conceptual break with the public school system, organizing a group that views an exodus as vital as her effort to rid the state of Common Core.
Karen Bracken holds elected office as commissioner in Polk County, Tenn. She is active in opposition to the idea of regional government and the Thrive 2055 program centering on Chattanooga that seeks to delocalize politics and reorganize municipal and county governments into a harmonious whole to better solicit funds from Washington, D.C.
In her frustration with the idea of public school reform, Mrs. Bracken is launching a group, Starve the Beast. http://www.starvethebeastusa.com/
Her effort in Tennessee Against Common Core implies that with removal of the federally directed program, public education might be restored to family and state. She appears to have given up hope for that group’s success.
The solution to Common Core is abandoning state schooling for private and Christian education. “The best alternative is to get our children out of harm’s way,” she says, “and that means get them out of the public school system and into the safety of their home to be educated by people that care about them and love them. Or to remove them from public school and enroll them into a true Christian Classical private school.”
For the double-minded
Mrs. Bracken admits that many parents will continue to remain two-minded about the state system and will insist on remaining patrons of its free school. For these die-hard consumers of the state freebie, Mrs. Bracken urges a strong dose of nay-saying.
Parents who “cannot under any circumstances provide homeschool or private school alternatives” should become refuseniks.
You are the parent(s) that REFUSE high stakes tests (including NAEP), REFUSE all surveys (even those given during test taking), REFUSE free meals in school, REFUSE any and all medical services provided inside the school (this includes BMI weight and height measurements), REFUSE AP courses, SAT, PSAT (there are 800 colleges today that accept students without SAT-this part of Component 2 is meant to starve the College Board), REFUSE to enroll your child into a Charter School, REFUSE vouchers, REFUSE digital learning (you want books and paper and pencil tests).
Parents with growing suspicions should “DEMAND to see EVERY test that has an impact on your child’s final grade, DEMAND to visit and observe your child’s class,” Mrs. Bracken says.
Moms and dads in Tennessee should stop patronizing a school system that has no genuine local control and does not reflect the interests of the ostensible client, the local family. “It is our hope by starving the beast eventually the beasts will die,” Mrs. Bracken says on the Starve the Beast website. “The beasts need our children and their data to survive. If we could reduce the current public school enrollment by 25% we could destroy the beasts.”
The fight against the globalist and egalitarian-oriented Common Core will have limited success, Mrs. Bracken indicates. “They say they want equity with all children having a fair shot at a good education (they actually had more equity years ago than now) but what they really want is equity in outcomes. The only way you provide equity in outcomes is to dumb down the system to the lowest denominator so all children can achieve the same outcomes.”
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Mrs. Bracken, taking heat from critics on the Facebook page for Chattanooga News & Review, remains a defender of the concept of the public school:
I am not against public schools. Completely the opposite. I have been fighting for public education for years and will continue to do so. But public schools are not a safe place for our children today so while we continue to fight to restore true public education we need to keep our children out of harms way. Christian schools are a recommendation because they, as a rule, do not support Common Core, massive data collection, over testing and the assault many of our public school teachers face today. Home school is my primary recommendation but not all parents are in a position to home school so we ask that parents that keep their children in the public school system be engaged in every facet of what is going on in their children’s classroom. We hand over our children to people everyday without knowing what takes place in those rooms once the classroom door closes. Parents need to take back their rights as parents and know what is being taught to their children. *** Bottom line is that while we continue to fight to restore public education in America and return it to the once greatest education system in the world we must find a safe place for our children.
Those trying to destroy public education are doing so to realize huge profits and taking them out of business is the only way to stop them. The only way you stop them from profiting off of the destruction of public education is to take from them what puts the money in their pocket and that is our children. Please do not make conjecture about me and what I believe. My only goal is to protect our children and the future of our country.
Most people have no clue when it comes to Commie Core, much like they have been taught that “Lincoln freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation” (but obviously have never actually read it). I find the “news” papers little more than state propaganda machines when it comes to Common Core. Arne Duncan gave his marching orders to the media — and they followed. Bill Gates’ money went to TNSCORE which crafted early propaganda fed to the papers – full color multi-page spreads dispelling the “myths” of Common Core. They just were not interested even when provided with evidence that the governor and state BOE were strong-arming directors of schools to endorse Race To The Top (and therefore Common Core, PARCC online testing, data collection – all in the RTTT application) before the standards existed or for that matter, before the entire RTTT federal grant application even existed in writing for them to ascribe to.
Bredesen, Webb and Rolston (and honorable mention to AG Bob Cooper) all committed federal fraud by lying on that application for $500M+ in taxpayer money — stating there was unanimous sign-on by all the school district directors, school board chairs and teacher union representatives (where applicable). This didn’t happen. Achieve Inc. board member Haslam helped spend it along with PARCC/TFA Huffman. They took federal bribes to implement mandatory new Pearson curriculum and online testing, personal data sales to 3rd parties, Gates computer/software purchases and the no-bid testing contract with PARCC (Achieve Inc was their project manager — website now scrubbed).