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Steve King: Telemed Abortions Threaten and Endanger Women
Life is Always the Right Choice
Six Problems with the Common Core State Standards Initiative

Steve King: Telemed Abortions Threaten and Endanger Women

Posted: 10 May 2012 04:00 PM PDT

Washington, DC- Congressman Steve King (R-IA) released the following statement today after introducing the “Telemedicine Safety Act.” The bill cuts off public funding to abortion clinics, like Planned Parenthood, across the country for telemedicine abortions. Telemed abortions involve dispensing powerful and dangerous abortion drugs, like RU-486, without a doctor present. The drug is administered after a brief video conference between the doctor and patient. While the doctor may be hundreds of miles away, the woman is left to endure the serious side-effects of the drug. RU-486 is responsible for at least 612 hospitalizations and 16 deaths.

“Planned Parenthood’s ulterior motives must be made known,” said King. “Their aggressive promotion of the gruesome practice of abortion by video conference is expanding the destructive ‘abortion on demand’ culture in America- all in the name of increased profits. Telemed abortions, without the overhead costs of a surgical abortion, allow Planned Parenthood to make even more money while preying on young women and violating FDA regulations. Eight percent of women who take the abortion drug known as RU-486 require surgical intervention to complete their abortion. This new practice leaves those women at grave risk, and should never be supported with taxpayer dollars. Telemed abortions threaten and endanger women and we should not allow Planned Parenthood to maximize their profits. We cannot let this practice continue.”

Life is Always the Right Choice

Posted: 10 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT

disabled Live Action profiled a video that has become viral about a young mother who chose life even though she was told he would be severely disabled.

Christian, the baby whom the video is about, was born with a disorder that only 1 in 50 people in the world have, and unfortunately, his case was much worse than his parents and doctors thought he would be. Most shocking of all his disabilities was that his eyes did not actually form, and so Christian is blind.

People would stare at Christian whenever he and his young mother went out and public. They would even whisper aloud, wondering what was wrong with that baby. One girl even expressed outrage that Christian wasn't aborted in utero.

As difficult as it was to raise a disabled baby and deal with people talking about her son, this young mother took pride in her baby, and eventually others did as well.

Here's the video, it's a must watch.

God has a purpose and a plan for Christian. Christian has also been "fearfully and wonderfully made," (Psalm 139:15). God doesn’t make mistakes. Yet many babies are aborted every year due to being diagnosed with a disability while they were in the womb. Steve Ertelt at LifeNews.com notes:

Abortion frequently targets disabled children, including those who have Down Syndrome. As many as 95 percent of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome in this country are aborted. But according to a recent survey conducted by Children's Hospital in Boston and reported by MSNBC, 99 percent of adults with the disorder say they are "happy with their lives," and almost as many say they like who they are and how they look.

It may seem like a difficult choice, but as Christian's mom discovered it is the right choice.

HT: Warner Todd Huston

Six Problems with the Common Core State Standards Initiative

Posted: 10 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT

With Jane Robbins

(below is an executive summary of a white paper written by Jane Robbins and myself)

The American Legislative Exchange Council's Public Sector Board of Directors must decide whether to uphold the Education Task Force's approval of the Comprehensive Legislative Package Opposing the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Task Force's public-sector members approved the package on a 14-6 vote, and its private-sector members approved the package on an 8-4 vote. This legislation provides a model for legislatures to reclaim state responsibility for education decision-making –which has been gravely impaired as a result of the Common Core.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative presents the following problems:

1. Manner of creation and propagation

The national Common Core State Standards (the "Standards") were not created by the states, but rather by private organizations in Washington, DC, with lavish funding from private entities such as the Gates Foundation. The federal Department of Education then used legally suspect means – the Race to the Top competition and the promise of waivers from No Child Left Behind – to impose the Standards on the states. This effort has been accompanied by a misleading campaign to present the Standards as "state-led" and "voluntary."

2. Mediocre quality

The Standards, which are intended to prepare students for nonselective community colleges rather than four-year universities, are inferior to those of some states and no better than those of many others. Common Core's English language arts standards consist of empty skill sets that, once implemented, might not require reading skills any higher than middle-school level. Furthermore, their de-emphasis of the study of classic literature in favor of "informational texts" would abandon the goal of truly educating students, focusing instead on training them for static jobs. Among the many deficiencies of the mathematics standards is their placement of algebra I in grade 9 rather than grade 8, thus ensuring that most students will not reach calculus in high school, and their mandate to teach geometry according to an experimental method never used successfully anywhere in the world. Contrary to previous claims by their creators, the Standards are not "internationally benchmarked."

3. Illegal direction of curriculum and usurpation of state autonomy

The point of standards and assessments is to drive curriculum. By imposing the Standards on the states, and by funding their aligned assessments and imposing those on the states as well, the U.S. Department of Education is violating three federal statutes prohibiting its direction, supervision, or control of curriculum. In addition, because states that adopt the Standards must accept them word for word and will have little opportunity to add content, the states must relinquish their autonomy over public education, all to the denigration of parents' rights.

4. Vague and unaccountable governance

It is not clear what governance structure will be created in the future to address issues related to the Standards. What is clear is that the Standards are owned and copyrighted by nongovernmental entities unaccountable to parents and students in individual states.

5. Costs

The only national study done of the potential costs of implementing the Standards and assessments estimates nationwide costs of almost $16 billion over seven years. Continuing costs will be substantial, especially with respect to professional development and technology maintenance and upgrades.

6. Threats to student and family privacy

The federal Department of Education (the "Department") is using the Standards and the assessments as vehicles to mandate the construction of massive state student databases. The Department has also gutted federal student-privacy law to allow greater sharing of student data with other government agencies and private entities. Partnering with the Department of Labor, the Department seeks to build a data system that allows tracking of individual students from preschool through the workforce. This vision not only creates substantial risks of privacy breach, but it also encompasses a worldview of the proper role of government that is greatly at odds with American founding principles.

For these reasons, the Public Sector Board of Directors should uphold the Education Task Force's approval of the Comprehensive Legislative Package Opposing the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Jane Robbins is a Senior Fellow with American Principles Project. Her works includes education policy, student privacy and parental rights issues. Ms. Robbins is a native of Pendleton, South Carolina, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Clemson University.

Horoscop

vineri, 11 mai 2012

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