#StopESEA @JohnCarneyDE @SenatorCarper @ChrisCoons #netde #eduDE #Delaware Our Children Are Not Lab Rats

Rep. John Carney, Senator Carper and Senator Coons:

We need you to vote NO on the ESEA Reauthorization.  This is not about children.  It is about companies, and their endless invasion into public education.  They want to turn our children into their testing guinea pigs with their personalized learning and competency-based education.  We know this is just an even more invasive method for them to break up Common Core and standardized tests into micro-chunks through their digital platforms.  We know lobbyists in Delaware and across America have been pounding you and your offices with all the reasons you need to vote yes.  We know the Delaware DOE, the Delaware State Board of Education, the Rodel Foundation, the Delaware Charter Schools Network, and Governor Markell have most likely been calling you non-stop to vote yes.  That is not good enough to sell the souls of our children down the river.  You represent the people of Delaware.  Not companies like Schoology and Achieve.  Not American Institutes for Research and all their sub-companies.  Not the Council of Chief State School Officers.  Not the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the University of California.

I am quite sure all three of you have aspirations to continue in government, whether it is at a state or federal level.  The people of Delaware are fast becoming aware of the dangers in this legislation.  Those in the know don’t want this.  They don’t want their children broken down into data points and tested incessantly.  This is what this bill is all about.  It is not about the students.  It will only serve to kill the illusion of helping those who need it the most.  Vote with your conscience, not your future prospects.  Vote with the knowledge that if you let this bill pass, your chances of re-election or your campaign for Governor will meet with very serious resistance.  This is not a threat, this is a fact.  When you start messing with children, you hold your fate in the hands of parents.  The same parents who press buttons at the voting booth.  Some of you may think it is a foregone conclusion that your political lives will continue based on voting patterns in Delaware.  This smoke and mirrors is evaporating faster than you realize.  The polls may say one thing, but the reality is a parent’s love for their child is bi-partisan.

Do the right thing for the children of Delaware and America.  We the people are counting on you.