A new player in town?

Activity this week highlights how EdWatch's combat experience in Saint Paul, multiplied by new national alliances, is already paying dividends on Capitol Hill--even without a Beltway lobbyist on the ground.

EdWatch, along with a coalition of like-minded organizations, is throwing roadblocks in the path of a bill that would establish federal academies to teach civics. They sound great, except that such academies would be unconstitutional. According to EdWatch, "Authority over education is a power reserved to the states. The federal government has no authority to set up federal academies to teach students or teachers. This bill is a violation of our Constitution."

Federal academies would also do an end-run past school boards and parents, teaching curriculum that is not subject to their review. EdWatch has a long-standing objection to the federally-funded curriculum, We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution, and the National History Standards, which would be the foundation of any federal civics academy. EdWatch believes that this federal curriculum "undermines the basic principles of freedom that are set forth in the Declaration of Independence, such as national sovereignty, inalienable rights, and self-evident truth, the 2nd amendment and the 9th and 10th amendments of limited government."

Here's where EdWatch's legislative experience comes in. In a move reminiscent of Profile of Learning intrigues, the original federal civics academies bill, H.R. 1078, The American History and Civics Education Act of 2003, has been resurrected for the current lame duck session as The American History and Civics Education Act of 2004, H.R. 5360. EdWatch caught wind of this and mobilized its members, in concert with other groups including The Liberty Committee, a 501(c)4 lobbying group. Their calls and faxes from across the country resulted in the bill being removed from today's calendar--a temporary but real victory for the bill's opponents. The effort continues; stay tuned.

EdWatch is also supporting House and Senate legislation that would prohibit mandatory mental health screening, using similar tactics with similar success.

Growing lobbying experience, plus an active grassroots network, plus new national alliances, plus a Capitol Hill lobbyist could make EdWatch a player in Congress real soon now. Now imagine for a moment that the Republicans endorse state Senator and EdWatch friend Michele Bachmann (R-Stillwater) against U.S. Senator Mark Dayton in 2006, and she wins. Stranger things have happened, such as the 2000 surprise endorsement win, primary election victory, and general election victory that landed Bachmann (now Assistant Minority Leader) in her Republican Caucus office in the first place.

Education for a free nation

EdWatch! You've just repealed the Profile of Learning and replaced it with knowledge-based academic standards! What are you going to do next?

Judging by who showed up to the group's national conference on the Saturday after Election Day, they're formulating some big plans. The conference had no fewer than ten "co-hosts," ranging from education groups such as Citizens United for Responsible Education from Washington state, Education Policy Center from Virginia, and Texas Standards Reform; to Eagle Forum, Minnesota Family Council, and Freedom 21.

A significant percentage of the conference attendees likewise hailed from outside Minnesota. The Profile is dead, and most of the Minnesotans who crowded past EdWatch conferences and rallies seem content to give the new standards a chance. The next round of legislative battles for more money for K-12 seems more suited to the House and Senate caucuses and the Taxpayers League than to EdWatch.

The conference theme, "Education for a FREE Nation," reflects EdWatch's evolving identity as a national advocate for promoting such traditional ideas as national sovereignty, parental rights, and free markets. EdWatch is developing into a focal point for many other groups concerned with issues such as curriculum, standardized testing, the federalization of education, early childhood education (EdWatch calls it "Baby Ed"), and mandatory mental health screening.

Just as EdWatch was a fixture in the halls, chambers, offices, and tunnels of the Minnesota Capitol complex, to get to the next level they will need a presence on Capitol Hill. They are trying to fund a full-time education lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Even if the effort is not successful this year, EdWatch is already riding a strengthening wave of conservative thought, joining other like-minded grassroots groups across the country.

Outcomes Based Retailing

During the lunch break at the EdWatch conference last week, I went over to the nearby monolithic Ikea store to pick up the small glass shelves that were out of stock when my wife bought a cabinet. I had never been to Ikea before. I discovered that shopping there has all the charm of fighting the crowds at the airport over Thanksgiving weekend to buy a newspaper. It makes Super Target seem cozy by comparison. But my favorite part of the European industrial-tech decor was the sign on the door to the employee areas: "Coworkers Only."

The reason that I haven't gotten around to writing about the conference is that I have been fooling around with getting my photos online for you to see. You can gawk at individual photos or queue them up into a slide show. See what real conservatives look like! Enjoy; more blogging to come next week I promise.

Whither MREdCo?

What ever happened to the Maple River Education Coalition?

First of all, awhile back they renamed themselves EdWatch. The group was founded by the sincere and striking Renee Doyle, parent and former school board member of the Maple River Independent School District #2135 (south of Mankato, Minnesota). EdWatch evolved into a statewide grassroots network of activists that sent one of its own, Michele Bachmann, to the state Senate, toppled the process-oriented Profile of Learning, and helped to fashion knowledge-based academic standards in its place. Their effectiveness at the Capitol earned them respect from legislators and shrill name-calling from their political opponents.

Along the way, the group attracted other conservative Minnesota organizations to their cause, such as the Minnesota Family Council and the Constitution Party of Minnesota. David Thompson, talk show host on AM 1500 KSTP, recently joined their board of directors. EdWatch director Julie Quist is a frequent guest on Joyce Harley's "Education Wednesdays" show on AM 980 KKMS.

Today EdWatch is evolving again, growing and adding alliances nationwide. Proof of their progress was revealed at their first national conference, held last weekend in Bloomington. I was there and will share my observations with you over the next several days. ("Welcome" to the many folks I met at the conference on Saturday.)

John Kerry (1998) for President

Cheri Pierson Yecke discovered that we shared many of John Kerry's views on public education, before we were against them:

Consider these excerpts from a speech Kerry gave on June 16, 1998, at Northeastern University:

"We can't afford to be uncritical apologists for public schools that work for our bureaucrats, but not for our kids."

" ... [T]oo often there are too many teacher unions... which fight for turf when they should be fighting for the tools to succeed... We're left with a system where no one is held responsible for our kids."

"No teacher should have a lock on any job, and it should not take tens of thousands of dollars and years in the courts to let go a teacher who will not or cannot help our kids succeed."

"We are stuck in an ideological cement of our own mixing and because of it, American parents are voting with their feet... Every morning more and more parents -- rich, middle-class, and even the poor -- are driving their sons and daughters to parochial schools where they believe there will be more discipline, more standards and more opportunity."

"Shame on us also for not realizing that there are parents in this country who care little about politics or party, who, today, support vouchers not because they are enamored with private schools, but because they want a choice for their children. They want alternatives -- and seeing none in our rigid system, they are willing and some even desperate to look elsewhere... "

It comes as no surprise that his tune has changed since then. According to Kathleen Kelley, president of a Massachusetts teacher union at the time: "We sat down with him immediately after that speech." What an interesting talk that must have been.

The union again had a "talk" with Kerry last May when he reverted to his 1998 persona, suggesting that he would "establish new systems that reward teachers for excellence in the classroom, including pay based on improvement in student achievement." Kerry again changed his tune.

If the unions hadn't had these "talks" with John Kerry, you would have thought that Tim Pawlenty and Yecke were setting his education reform agenda (and we would have had to consider endorsing him for president)!

I Voted

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. —Samuel Adams

There were about forty voters in line when I arrived at my precinct polling station this morning around 6:45 am. It was a cold and rainy morning; several voters carried umbrellas. By the time I fed my completed ballot into the ballot machine, there were probably a hundred or more in line.

Please exercise your precious American right to vote today, then explain to your kids what it means to you.