Radical Environmental Education Bill Passes House   September 22, 2008
The Democrat controlled US House passed HR 3036, the No Child Left Inside Act, on September 18th by a vote of 293-109.  Only one Democrat opposed this unconstitutional expansion of the federal government into the realm of education that promotes unscientific, non-academic, politically correct environmental propaganda.
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  ALERT: Environmental Education bill RESCHEDULED   September 12, 2008
The No Child Left Inside Act, HR 3036, is now rescheduled for Tuesday, September 16th It was pulled from the House legislative calendar last week. Please call your members and the House leadership. Here are some talking points.
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  ALERT: "Environmental Ed" House Vote   September 8, 2008
HR 3036, the No Child Left Inside Act (chief author John Sarbanes, Democrat, MD), gives states and schools incentives (federal grants) to conduct "environmental education" programs within existing classes. This means that when children are enrolled in history, literature, math or science, during some of their class time, they will actually be schooled in "environmental education" instead of academic subjects. HR 3036 will be up for a vote on the floor of the House this Thursday, September 11th.
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  Nanny State Bills Expand Government Control Over Families   July 17, 2008
Two bills which recently passed the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee and are headed for floor debate clearly illustrate the insatiable appetite that the radicals in charge of Congress have for control over the hearts and minds of our nation's youngest children.   HR 3289, the Providing Resources Early for Kids Act of 2008 (PRE-K Act), puts the federal government in charge of what children will learn in preschool programs. HR 2343, the Education Begins at Home Act, sets up invasive home visiting programs.
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  The Fed's Cure for "Nature Deficit Discorder" in Our Kids   July 15, 2008
Claiming to have the remedy for "nature deficit disorder," Congressional Democrats (along with some Republicans) are in the process of passing a new federal education program for all 50 states. The bill is called "No Child Left Inside" and is a major expansion of the federal education train-wreck, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
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  2008 Minnesota Session Education Wrap-Up   June 10, 2008
Thank you for your support and involvement. Here is a final status report on the education-related provisions that EdWatch was following this session.
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  Veto Update on MN Education Bills   May 16, 2008
Education Policy Bill Vetoed. Finance Bill Awaiting Veto. Conference Committee Drops NCLB Withdrawal. More Intrusive Data Gathering.  Please take action to sustain the Governor's veto.
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   New Federal Regulations on NCLB -- More Mandates  May 13, 2008
Three separate proposals to withdraw Minnesota from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were debated in the final 2008 MN House education bill against a backdrop of new federal regulations regarding NCLB released on April 23. These new federal regulations are an end run around our elected representatives in Congress. Twenty-one new mandates are being proposed.
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  MN House Votes Unanimously to Withdraw from NCLB!    May 2, 2008
The fate of this wonderful amendment is now in the hands of a conference committee, which has to reconcile the House and Senate version of this entire large policy bill that contains several controversial provisions such as comprehensive sex education and the growth-based value added system that we have previously discussed.  Sadly, both the Governor and the Senate oppose it.  This language will be dropped unless we continue to make it an issue. 
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  NCLB Withdrawal Vote in MN House   April 17, 2008
The Minnesota House will likely take up its large education policy bill, HF 3316 TODAY or at the latest on Monday, April 21st.  This is another chance for you to make your voices heard on whether Minnesota continues to labor under the tyrannical mandates of No Child Left Behind. 
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  Gutting Withdrawal of NCLB   April 8, 2008
After contentious debate on an omnibus-omnibus budget bill, (otherwise known as a garbage bill), in both the House and Senate the withdrawal of Minnesota from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was gutted. It remains a shell of what passed the House committee.
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  Action on NCLB & Good News on Pre-K   April 3, 2008
Unfortunately, no amendments to withdraw Minnesota from NCLB were offered during the Senate committee process as happened in the House, but we are hopeful that it will happen during Senate floor debate.  We need your help to raise this important issue with senators and the governor! The other very good news of this session is that the large House education omnibus policy (HF 3316) and budget (HF 2475) bills contain NO new early childhood policy or funding and that many of our concerns in the Senate omnibus education bills (SF 3001 - policy / SF 3631 - funding) related to early childhood described in our March 18th alert have been resolved.   However, EdWatch sees this as only a temporary reprieve.  The saying, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" has never been truer.
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  Update on Minnesota Education Bills   March 31, 2008
View a current scorecard on the status of various issues that EdWatch is following at the legislature this session.
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  MN House Committee Withdraws from No Child   March 27, 2008
A SHOT HEARD ROUND THE NATION:   Thank you for your involvement!!  You are having a great effect!! After our alert pointing out DFL hypocrisy in not hearing any bills to withdraw MN from No Child Left Behind  (NCLB) despite previous support, the House K-12 finance committee struck a great blow for educational freedom on Tuesday, March 25 by adopting an amendment to do just that.  In a rare, but very refreshingly bi-partisan manner, an amendment offered by Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) to HF 2475 was adopted.
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  Some Good News and Rapid Changes at Capitol   March 19, 2008
No House Early Childhood Bill; House K-12 Supplemental to be presented today; BMI monitoring still in SF 3099.
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  ALERT:  Bills Push Control & Tracking of Your Children   March 18, 2008
Amidst DFL efforts to control the family bank account via historic tax increases, legislative committees have been furiously hearing and passing bills dealing with state control of the raising and education of children from birth through college. This includes expansion of the subjective kindergarten readiness assessment that does de facto mental health screening and falsely labels 50% of Minnesota children as not "ready to learn," and data collection on every aspect of your children's lives from their genetic information to their body mass index.  Part one of this series of reports will deal with early childhood control and assessment. 
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  DFL Refuses to Hear Bills to Withdraw MN from NCLB   March 11, 2008
For years, the DFL have rightly criticized the federal legislation that provides 2% or less of Minnesota's education budget, but costs so much more in regulation and implementation as an "unfunded mandate" and "micromanaging" from Washington.  However, now that they can really do something, they refuse.
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  Update: Hearing Delayed on State Screening/Data Bill   March 3, 2008
The Minnesota Department of Education has indicated a willingness to respond to EdWatch Action's concerns about both the behavioral screening and the federal sharing of individual student data. The Senate hearing on SF 3001 is rescheduled for Monday, March 3rd at 3:00 PM.
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  Education Department Wants More Behavioral Screening  February 27, 2008
Two years ago, the Minnesota Department of Education tried to slip unscientific, intrusive and anti-parent initiatives into special education under the guise of making "technical corrections" in existing law.  They're at it again with their 2008 "technical corrections" bill (SF 3001).   Senate Committie Hearing Today
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