“THIS IS VERY SERIOUS”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jan. 28, 2016) — Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe has produced several videos as part of an investigation into the production of textbooks associated with the Obama regime’s Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Breitbart News has reported on the videos and political cronyism involved in the selection of publishers of Common Core textbooks and what O’Keefe has identified as their “anti-American agenda.”
“It’s all about the money,” a West Coast textbook sales executive for Houghton Mifflin said while on one of O’Keefe’s cameras. Breitbart quoted O’Keefe as having said of his discoveries, “Corporate cronyism and underhanded political deals have contributed to Common Core’s massive disruption and the unraveling of America’s educational fabric.”
According to Ruth Bryant White, founder of BreakingNewsJournal.net (BNJ), O’Keefe’s videos will be featured on the investigative news division of her new television channel to be launched following the “It’s About the Child” conference on Friday and Saturday in Houston, TX.
In a November interview, White told The Post & Email that at that time, several episodes of a constitutional education program had been filmed featuring Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.
The conference will be a forum on Common Core and will feature speakers from various professions and backgrounds whose research shows that Common Core is harmful to children. While White and other critics view Common Core as a nationalization of education, the Common Core website states that “The Common Core State Standards are and will remain a state-led effort, and adoption of the standards and any potential revisions will continue to be a voluntary state decision.”
Parents and concerned individuals from various states have formed coalations opposing Common Core.
White has issued an invitation to all presidential candidates to attend a town hall meeting on Saturday, January 30, when they can meet parents, grandparents and children concerned about what they see as the negative effects of Common Core.
On Tuesday night, presidential candidate Ted Cruz issued a challenge to fellow candidate Donald Trump to debate “mano a mano,” meaning “hand-to-hand.” In response, White told us, “If you’re going to challenge him, challenge him on ‘It’s About the Child‘ and bring everybody on down there. They’ve been criss-crossing the country, doing all these debates, but this is very serious. None of the candidates have put a single dime of their advertising into ‘It’s About the Child.'”
Presidential candidates Cruz and Rick Santorum have both denounced Common Core in the past, but White is looking for something contemporary as well as a response to the invitation to attend the conference.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump issued a Facebook video message in which he called Common Core “a total disaster.”
White said that Cruz’s wife, Heidi, has confirmed that she will be attending the conference this weekend. However, White said she would like to have seen a statement issued from the Cruz campaign and all other campaigns on the controversial educational standards.
A press release announcing the conference stated, in part:
It is for Parents to hear the many aspects of Common Core from its History and whose behind it, its many intrusive data gathering tools, it’s control aspect of students, families and teachers. Parents will see how the child’s mind and body is affected.
Saturday will be a time to form a grassroots think tank with many ideas presented to attack it. Nine ideas will be presented and audience on twitter and fb will be able to have input. Saturday afternoon there will be a Presidential Candidates Town Hall.
White said that candidates still have time to make plans to attend the town hall meeting on Saturday or to send a surrogate. “They have to understand how serious this is with the moms and dads,” White said. “They are the ones who are going to make the decisions. But it seems to be a money game.”
Of the town hall meeting, White told us:
It’s going to be a live question-and-answer session where people from all over the country can chime in with the live-streaming. It’s going to be very important for the candidates to participate. These are the real moms and dads, and if they are angry that the candidates or their surrogates didn’t come down, the candidates will have some answering to do. There has never been an issue like this on such a large-scale front to deal with Common Core, and they might have had a statement about it but aren’t going to be there to answer questions…If they can’t be there in person, have them send somebody.”
Regarding informing the public, White said:
We should have millions of people signed up for the live-streaming. Every news service, every mom and dad, doctors, lawyers, presidential candidates – they all have children and grandchildren. They should care. It is going to reach your child. The people who think their children are protected because they’re in private school or Catholic school are wrong. If you have a child who has been abused by Common Core, then you have contributed to it because you thought your child would not be affected.
This is what people are not realizing. Your child is my child. If your child does something that hurts somebody else’s child, I feel that pain. Remember when Hillary Clinton was saying, “It takes a village to raise a child?” Well, this is our village. Each one of these kids is affected.
Some of the people who have said, “I didn’t realize it was that bad” – they knew. They knew that we were smart people and were going to look everything up. But one of the things that George Soros and Bill Gates and the others didn’t count on was that we were going to use our skills – whether it was in media, in typing, sounding the alarm on social media, all the tools we have at our disposal – they did not count on that.
There will be two news conferences occurring prior to the presidential candidates’ town hall meeting on Saturday. The full agenda is here. Live-streaming registration can be completed here.
On Sunday, January 31, there will be a prayer service and discussion on the Constitution.
Any candidates wishing to make a formal statement on Common Core may contact Diana Crews at itsaboutthechild@yahoo.com.