Did Pearson Charitable Foundation Use Common Core to Launder Money?

While OH House Rep. Gerald Stebelton (614-466-8100) continues to fight "kicking & screaming" to keep Common Core from being repealed in Ohio, we see another example of how Common Core is more about the money than it is about teaching our children....

From The Washington Post --

Last year the Pearson Charitable Foundation — the nonprofit arm of the largest education publishing company in the world — paid $7.7 million in fines to the state of New York after authorities found that it had broken state law by helping its for-profit parent. How? By helping it develop Common Core educational products and by paying travel expenses for potential clients to attend education conferences.

Nonprofit organizations are not supposed to be helping for-profit companies make money. Oops. The settlement between the foundation and New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said that the foundation had a “close working relationship” with Pearson. It said:

The Foundation’s staff has consisted of Pearson employees; the Foundation’s board was comprised entirely of Pearson executives until 2012; select Foundation programs have been conducted with the advice and participation of senior Pearson executives; and the Foundation continues to rely heavily upon Pearson Inc. for administrative support.

According to the settlement (see text below), Pearson used its nonprofit foundation to develop Common Core products in order to win an endorsement from a “prominent foundation.” A story by my Washington Post colleague Lyndsey Layton said that Pearson used the foundation to develop Common Core products, including courses, to win an endorsement from a “prominent foundation,” which happened to be the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was a prime funder of the Core from its creation.

Though foundation officials did not deny or admit the charges, they agreed to pay the fines. Now, nearly a year after the settlement, the Pearson foundation is closing. Here’s the statement on the Pearson foundation‘s Web site under the headline, “Thank You”:

On November 18, 2014, the Pearson Charitable Foundation’s Board of Directors publically announced the intent to cease Foundation operations and close the Pearson Foundation at the end of the year. This follows a decision by Pearson plc to integrate all of its corporate responsibility activities and functions into its business as a way to maximise social impact and to no longer fund the Foundation as the primary vehicle for its philanthropic and community activities.

The Pearson Foundation’s closing follows more than a decade of support to some of the world’s great teachers, schools, and non-profit organizations. Since its inception in 2003, the Pearson Foundation has contributed more than $130 million to improving learning opportunities and outcomes for young people and adults, and to supporting the aims of exemplary non-profit organizations to help identify, scale, and celebrate their important work. We are pleased that their work continues.

We thank these partners for their dedication, their lasting impact, and for their continued inspiration.

We also thank Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, and our many public and private partners for their financial support and for their sustained confidence in our mission over the years.

Even more, we thank the countless individuals—young people, teachers, program leaders, and learning experts—who have inspired us and more often than not offered their own time, talents, and interests to further the Pearson Foundation’s aims. We are grateful for their example, for the time we spent together, and for their lasting friendship, guidance, and support.

Here’s the text of the 2013 settlement:

Pearson Executed AOD[1]

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA): The Amnesty Uncle Tom

It shows complete ignorance for anyone to compare President Obama granting amnesty for immigrants illegally entering our country on their own volition with President Lincoln's freeing of slaves forcefully brought into this country and sold into servitude.

But for black Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) to diminish the horrors of slavery in our country and make this comparison - would make him an "Amnesty Uncle Tom."

Whereas illegal immigrants are often given in-state tuition, slaves were often given a rope from the limb of a tree.

Below is a great article by Kevin Fobbs calling out Rep. Johnson on trying to equate President Obama granting amnesty for illegal immigrants to President Lincoln's ending slavery in our country.

From Communities Digital News --

CLEVELAND, November 15, 2014 — Under the category of unbelievable or perhaps delusional liberal gaffes, a Democratic congressman is comparing President Obama’s threatened unilateral action on immigration to Lincoln’s decision to free the slaves.

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., announced this week that Obama, who did nothing to push through immigration reform when he and the Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, is the second coming of Abraham Lincoln, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A memo was leaked by the White House that strongly suggests that Obama intends to announce a ten-point immigration reform executive order which will allow millions of illegal immigrants to live and work legally in the United States. Rep. Johnson apparently has avoided the legal fact that these same millions of illegal immigrants are breaking the law.

Instead, the congressman insists that Obama will be regarded with the same historical standing as Lincoln, who freed millions of black slaves who were held in servitude for nearly 200 years.

They’re protecting an economic order that makes its living off of cheap labor, just like slavery. You entice people from across the border to come here and you pay them sub-wages and you keep them in an underground economy and you refuse to let them out. Those people work hard. They have played by the rules. They have built this country. …

One day there will be movies written about this episode in American history. There will be a president who issues an executive order like the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed 3 to 4 million slaves with the signing of a pen. There will be some bold leaders in the Congress trying to move those who try to cling to the status quo. …

In the end of the movie Congress will — there will be some bold action in Congress by congressional leaders to force the others to do what is right. And it may take a little bit more time, but I’m proud to stand here with those who have been fighting for a long time and those who have the strength to continue to fight until we get this done.

I also want to say to President Obama: We have your back. Don’t worry about it. Do the right thing. Let’s make it happen.

Far from being celebrated, the action that the president is considering may lead to a new American insurrection.

Already there are pitched outcries from conservative and Republican ranks, as well as disappointment from blacks who increasingly feel insulted and betrayed by Obama’s lack of action on problems and concerns in the black community.

Rep. Johnson seems to have forgotten that his own native state of Georgia actually is suffering from the worst unemployment in the nation. The facts are startling. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Georgia’s unemployment rate was 8.1 percent, which was the highest rate of all 50 states.

Obama has issued no executive order to end joblessness in Georgia’s urban centers, or even in his own home city of Chicago.

The commander-in-chief has been missing in action. That is why many blacks in Georgia and in other minority communities around the nation have openly challenged his commitment to the black community, whose ancestors Lincoln actually did free.

Has the congressional representative forgotten the throes of anguish that Lincoln endured as he worked fervently to end to a Civil War that nearly destroyed a nation to insure freedom from slavery? The illegal immigrants made a choice to break the law to enter the United States; they were not brought here against their will. They are not slaves and are free to return to their true homes.

Unlike Lincoln, Obama shows no anguish as he makes his decisions. No heart- or soul-searching is apparent in the process of emancipating the illegal immigrants from what Rep. Johnson believes is the bondage of the law. Johnson said, “One day there will be movies written about this episode in American history.” He added, “There will be a president who issues an executive order like the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed three to four million slaves with the signing of a pen.”

The voters of Johnson’s congressional district should demand a recount or a revote, because the Hollywood version of his fantasy ends with the Congress taking bold action initiated by congressional leaders. Supposedly inspired by the President, these Capitol Hill leaders will be forced to “do what is right.”

Now is the right time to introduce Johnson to reality; once the congressman’s dream phase has ended, he will realize that the congressional leadership will most certainly do the right thing, and that is to deny Obama funding for his actions or move for articles of impeachment.

Either way, Johnson’s version of the Obama movie saga will have to end up on the cutting room floor.

Melt the phones to stop amnesty

Art credit: mycars.guru

Just in from Tea Party Patriots:

President Obama is expected to grant executive amnesty this week via executive order. Our last chance to stop it is to urge Congress to not allow one dime of money to be spent implementing the executive order.

Congress is expected to pass an omnibus bill sometime before December 12th that would finalize spending until the end of this fiscal year (September 30, 2015). While we would prefer not to have an omnibus bill, we realize this may be our only opportunity to stop the President’s executive amnesty.

Rep. Matt Salmon has started an effort in the House to push the appropriations committee to not include funding for executive amnesty in the spending bill. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

1.   Use the information here to contact Congress. Use the Twitter icon to automatically tweet them and the email button to email their staff. Call, tweet, and email!

2.   Contact all of those listed here with a red “x” and ask them to support Matt Salmon’s efforts to stop executive amnesty. Get them to commit to not supporting a spending bill if it funds the President’s executive action.

3.   Contact all of those listed here with a green check mark and thank them for being willing to fight this. Tell them to stay strong and they’ll continue to get our support.

Ohio Representatives who have not yet committed to stopping Amnesty are (click on each name to send an email):

Steve Chabot (OH-1)    202-225-2216

Michael Turner (OH-10)     202-225-6465

Patrick Tiberi (OH-12)     202-225-5355

David Joyce (OH-14)     202-225-5731

Steve Stivers (OH-15)     202-225-2015

James Renacci (OH-16)     202-225-3876

Jim Jordan (OH-4)     202-225-2676

Robert Latta (OH-5)     202-225-6405

Bill Johnson (OH-6)     202-225-5705

John Boehner (OH-8)     202-225-6205

Melt the phones!

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Christmas preparations

This one is making the rounds on FB: 

Just another way to gear up for the Christmas season....

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Invasion: Mega Carp Are Coming. So are killer shrimp.

Did anyone watch the SyFy Channel’s mega-hit, Mega Piranha?

(YouTube image)

Even if Great Lakes predatory invaders are too small to eat a helicopter, they are still a real threat. From PJ Media:

Bighead carp — a member of the Asian carp family that can fly through the air and grow as long as 60 inches and as heavy as 110 pounds, just two inches shorter and 15 pounds heavier than former child star Mary-Kate Olsen and her billionaire twin sister, Ashley — is just one of the invasive species worrying people who fish for fun or profit on the Great Lakes.

And there’s plenty of profit to be made on the Great Lakes if only from the $7 billion a year fishing industry.

But now a new critter has been added to the list of invasive species doing damage by natural resources officials in the states and Canadian provinces that surround lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

It is much smaller but no less ugly, and it comes by its nickname because it is just as hungry.

The killer shrimp (scientists call it: dikerogammarus villosus) is an inch of pure hunger and fury that chews up and eats anything without a spine that is its own size.

Nick Popoff, the aquatic species and regulatory affairs manager for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, told PJ Media killer shrimp are aggressive little predators with sharp, serrated mouths that shred their prey and could completely alter the food chain in the Great Lakes.

. . .

As scary as the prospect of killer shrimp bottom feeding their way through the waters of the Great Lakes seems, it is the Asian carp that first rattled the invasive species alarm bells in nine states and two Canadian provinces.

Asian carp jump out of the water, seem to fly through the air, smashing hard into whatever or whomever is in their way, and they love to eat.

. . .

Photo: cleveland.com

. . .

Asian carp DNA was discovered in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan in 2013, and a live carp was caught in Flatfoot Lake near Chicago, located next to the Calumet River, which feeds directly into Lake Michigan.

A December 2013 joint Army Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report showed that fish were moving through the electronic barrier in the Chicago Waterway meant to serve as Lake Michigan’s last line of defense against the carp.

In 2012, the electronic barriers temporarily malfunctioned, leaving the Great Lakes unprotected from infestation.

“Right now there are 180 invasive species and growing. Great Lakes fishing can’t afford another one,” Captain Denny Grinold of Fish “N” Grin Charter Service in Grand Haven explained. “If they go the way the sea lamprey did, they will destroy the fisheries.”

Canada is scared, too.

. . .

The Army Corps of Engineers has tried a variety of measures to beat the Asian carp from water cannon to electric fishing, but recommended in June the construction of permanent barriers that would cut off Lake Michigan from Chicago’s waterways, which seem to be a breeding ground for the carp.

But that won’t happen quickly or inexpensively. At a bare minimum, it’s an $18 million plan that would take 25 years to finish.

[By which time the invasion will already be complete.]

Critics say the barrier plan is also inadequate because it doesn’t take into account other waterways that feed into the Great Lakes.

. . .

Could Killer Shrimp-Nado, the Movie be next?

“Maybe you should call the SyFy Channel on that,” Popoff said.

More like Mega-Carp-Nado. Read the rest of the report here.

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Common Core updates: Ohio and Wisconsin

Art credit: www.redstate.com

The Heritage Foundation posted this from The Daily Signal:

On the heels of Republican victories last week, attempts to replace Common Core with homegrown standards are resurfacing in states across the nation.

Most prominently, elected officials in Wisconsin and Ohio are spearheading efforts to reclaim more control of education.

On Nov. 5, the day after the midterm elections, an Ohio House committee passed a bill to repeal the Common Core standards.

Although officials on both sides doubt the bill will garner enough support to pass by the end of the year, they are hopeful the legislature will take up the issue in 2015.

But to be safe, Common Core supporters such as state Rep. Gerry Stebelton, R-Lancaster, say they will double down on efforts to defeat the repeal bill. “It deserved to die,” said Stebelton of the bill. “It has no merit.”

Read the rest here. 

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Cleveland Tea Party Calls for Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neil To Step Down

With the complete election day failures of the Democrats in Ohio thanks to soon to be outgoing Ohio Democrat Party (ODP) Chairman Chris Redfern & his anchor of a candidate for Governor, Ed FitzGerald, that helped bring the whole statewide ticket down, the battle lines are being drawn for control of the Ohio Democrats. 

Showing the establishment Democrats & the establishment Republicans are equally sleazy when it comes to backroom deals and rigging the process, Senator Sherrod Brown's recent endorsement of his lobbyist friend Denny Wojtanowski as next ODP Chair was immediately squashed.

But this post is not to revel in the inner-party fighting of the Democrats in Ohio. 

This post is to serve the purpose of calling for Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neil to immediately step down from the Ohio Supreme Court.

While every citizen, elected official & party activist has the right to voice their opinion - judges and judicial candidates are bound by the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct.  

Recently weighing in on the inner-party fight of the Ohio Democrat Party, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neil, a Democrat, posted the following rants over the last several days....

O'Neil's above Facebook rants go way beyond the allowable activity for a sitting judge under the Ohio Code for Judicial Conduct.

Under Canon 2 Rule 2.4 (Pg 22) of the Ohio Code for Judicial Conduct it states.... (Emphasis Added)

RULE 2.4 External Influences on Judicial Conduct

(A) A judge shall not be swayed by public clamor or fear of criticism.

(B) A judge shall not permit family, social, political, financial, or other interests or relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment.

(C) A judge shall not convey or permit others to convey the impression that any person or organization is in a position to influence the judge.

[1] An independent judiciary requires that judges decide cases according to the law and facts, without regard to whether particular laws or litigants are popular or unpopular with the public, the media, government officials, or the judge’s friends or family. Confidence in the judiciary is eroded if judicial decision making is perceived to be subject to inappropriate outside influences.

From O'Neil's above rants it clearly shows that his political interests and relationships can effect his decision making process which can easily be perceived that he is subject to outside influences.

Further crossing the line of allowable activity, O'Neil's comments are in direct conflict with allowable political & campaign activity allowed under Canon 4 Rule 4.1.... (Emphasis Added)

RULE 4.1 Political and Campaign Activities of Judges and Judicial Candidates

[1] Though subject to public election, a judge plays a role different from that of a legislator or executive branch official. Rather than making decisions based upon the expressed views or preferences of the electorate, a judge makes decisions based upon the law and the facts of each case. Therefore, in furtherance of this interest, judges and judicial candidates must, to the greatest extent possible, be free and appear to be free from political influence and political pressure. Canon 4 imposes narrowly tailored restrictions upon the political and campaign activities of all judges and judicial candidates.

Participation in Political Activities

[3] Public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the judiciary is eroded if judges or judicial candidates are perceived to be subject to political influence. Although judges and judicial candidates may register to vote as members of a political party, they are prohibited by division (A)(1) from assuming leadership roles in political organizations.

[4] Divisions (A)(2) and (A)(3) prohibit judges and judicial candidates from making speeches on behalf of political organizations or publicly endorsing or opposing candidates for public office to prevent them from abusing the prestige of judicial office to advance the interests of others.

In O'Neil's Facebook rants he talks about his speaking out on the Democrat Party fight for control of Ohio as a "matter of honor."  

"As a sitting Ohio Supreme Court Justice," stated Ralph King co-founder of the Cleveland Tea Party Patriots, "in reverence to the honor of serving on Ohio's highest court & integrity of the judicial process which he is to uphold, as a 'matter of honor' - Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neil should very quietly, politely, stand up and resign his seat."