LULAC, NCLR, NAACP, Asian American Justice Center And Obama's Stimulus

What do they all have in common?

They are promoting a national advertising campaign to promote free broadband internet access for "underserved communities" with the catchy theme, "Change Your Tomorrow".


And they're doing it with your tax dollars.

Under Obama's Reinvestment and Recovery Act , $7.2 billion was appropriated for the "Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to expand broadband access and adoption in communities across the U.S., which will increase jobs, spur investments in technology and infrastructure, and provide long-term economic benefits."

PROJECT PARTNERS include:
The Broadband Opportunity Coalition which is comprised of the Asian American Justice Center, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, National Urban League, and League of United Latin American Citizens)

Minority Media and Telecommunications Council 
National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters 
National Black Chamber of Commerce 
More than 160 corporations and not-for-profit, housing, and community organizations


Here is an example of how our tax dollars have been shuffled around:

LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) was given $1.5 million of which $1 million of that money was then given to the non profit organization One Economy Corporation.   The global initiative for One Economy states:

Around the world today, access to information is critical. One Global Economy’s community driven approach to international development works to extend and enhance the benefits of information and technology to those who need it most – the world’s poor.

Sounds like Van Jones and Cass Sunstein's ideas on Social Justice.  Broadband and "SOCIAL JUSTICE"

The NAACP claims:

The thought of civil rights often brings to mind images of historic marches and boycotts. A generation ago, such undertakings brought attention to unequal treatment, encouraging action among those who could work to promote equality.

In the age of information, inequality doesn’t look the same as it did in the 20th century. Today’s civil rights challenges include digital inequality.

Yeah?  Is it fair that everyone doesn't have a Porsche or a beach house in the Hamptons?

Overall, One Economy has received over $51 million of our tax dollars funnelled through Obama's stimulus slush fund, Broadband USA.

Applicant	One Economy Corporation
	Washington, DC
Application ID	56
Contact	Rey Ramsey
	202-393-0051
	rramsey@one-economy.com
Project title	21st Century Information and Support Ecosystem: Make It Easy Where You Are
Program	BTOP
Proposed Project Area	AL, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, NC, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI, WV
Project type	Sustainable Broadband Adoption
Funding Round	Round 1 - Summer 2009
Grant request	$ 45,527,735
Status	Awarded
Grant Award	$ 28,519,482
Description	One Economy, the Broadband Opportunity Coalition and a diverse team of partners propose to increase adoption rates among the unserved and underserved through a comprehensive and integrated program that includes digital literacy, online content, affordable connectivity and public education that will overcome barriers to adoption and will maximize the opportunities inherent in the technology itself.

The grant requester was Rey Ramsey.  Here is his vision for leveraging technology to produce "social dividends".

And here you can view their PR advertising campaign blitz.  Our favorites are the ones titled "Homework" and "One Economy".  Obama needs to convince the American people (using their own money) that free broadband is good for everyone because for some reason, we just aren't understanding that free internet service is supposed to be a "right" and not a "privilege".


What seems to be left out of the discussion is how these low income, "underserved" households who now have free broadband will be able to afford a computer.


Oh wait.  That's why companies like Microsoft, Best Buy, Cox Cable and 160 other corporations are sponsoring the Obama "Connect to Compete" program.

Also, if you qualify for the National School Lunch Program, you can qualify for the $9.95/month internet rate.  Obama claims that not a single taxpayer dollar will be used for this program.  Really?  Is that why those who don't qualify for the National School Lunch Program pay $60/month for the same service?  Someone has to subsidize it. 

According to the Advisor of the Broadband Task Force, Jordan Usdan,

• An unprecedented coalition of nonprofit and grassroots organization have committed to help spread the word about Connect to Compete. These include: America’s Promise Alliance; Digital Promise; Opportunity Nation; United Way Worldwide; Boys and Girls Club; Connected Nation; Goodwill; CFY; 4H; members of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition: The Asian American Justice Center, National Council of La Raza (NCLR), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), National Urban League, One Economy, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); the Minority and Media Telecommunications Council (MMTC) and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

So, what DO you call $7.2 billion dollars of "stimulus money" used to expand broadband access and adoption in communities across the U.S.?

Spreading the wealth around...

Common Core: If You Give A Kid An iPAD...

Obama is all about everything being equal and fair.  Including outcomes.

 

Which is why he wanted to make sure that if he set the goal to have a 90% graduation rate by 2020, it would only be fair that all students had the same final exam.  In order to have the same final exam and reach the 90% graduation rate goal, you have to have the same (dumbed-down) curriculum. 

 

If you're going to have a common curriculum and a common exam, of course you need a way to be able to TAKE the test.  This will require schools to be equipped with the latest technology. 

 

In order to have the latest technology, you have to have broadband access.  And if you're going to create the broadband infrastructure to schools, you will naturally provide lines to EVERYONE in the community.  

 

And if you're going to make the most use of the latest technology and broadband service, you will naturally convert to digitalized textbooks which can now be accessed both at school and at home....on the school's new laptop or tablet.

 

Clever.

 

Here's how Obama pulled it off:

 

Back in 2008,  a coalition called Internetforeveryone.org got together to push for Internet access for, well, everyone.  One of the members of the coalition would be Obama's future Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones.  They claimed that a "digital divide" among Internet users might leave lower-income and minorities behind.  After all, it was Jones who claimed that "In the California wildfires, those who had access to information at the drop of a hat could figure out if they were in danger and get out.  It's a matter of life and death." (As if looking out your window and seeing a giant wall of fire or smelling something burning wasn't a big enough clue). 

 

 

 

 

 

 That Van Jones.  He's a real joker.  Pretending he had never heard of Twitter before.

 

In 2009, ninety-one percent of Americans had access to broadband services, although only 57% of Americans actually used it.  This, of course, required Obama to completely overhaul the system.  Obama announced his plan for the FCC to create an essential broadband platform because the Internet was no longer just a luxury for the few (91%). To accomplish this goal, Obama dedicated over $7B in stimulus funding to bring broadband lines to rural areas.  Also, through public-private partnerships, companies such as Comcast, under the FCC conditions of their merger with NBC in 2011, began providing technology and Internet access to schools.  They also made cheap monthly rates available to low-income communities which would be subsidized by the wealthier subscribers who pay upwards of $60 per month for the same service.

 

Naturally, Obama saw public backlash when people began complaining that his plan would lead to net neutrality and complete control of the Internet.

 

So, he simply changed his marketing strategy.  The Prop-in-Chief began using kids to push for Internet access in schools because, who can say "No" if it's for the children.

Here is Education Secretary, Arne Duncan's Chief of Staff, Joanne Weiss.  She stated that one of the effective tried-and-true levers at the federal level is the "Bully Pulpit."   She said, "There is a tremendous amount of power when the Secretary (of Education) takes to the microphone and talks about the national education technology plan that we've put together, a vision for what teaching learning assessment need to look like in the 21st century."

 

 

She also talked about "equity" of assets and mentioned that they worked with the FCC and the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture to "Not just focus on access but now on adoption.  So, how do we make sure that even though that broadband wire is passing by a school, that actually at the school, and in the community, people have the ability to tap into it?"

 

Ah.  So, if you can get SCHOOLS to have Internet access, you can then justify why it is necessary in every HOME too.  Ms. Weiss continued,

 

 "We look at access and equity traditionally as if 'I'm going to buy a computer for one kid, I need to buy a computer for EVERY kid' and the price tag is so dramatically high that we don't do it.  Instead of saying, 'a whole bunch of kids are coming into school already with the computer in their backpack, how about if we let them take it OUT of their backpack and use it.'  Then we don't need to buy as many computers and suddenly everybody's got it and we can all be on doing the work we need to do."

 

Equity.   Or rather, the Haves and Have nots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like the movie, Field of Dreams,

"If you build it....they will come."

 

 

Arne Duncan October 2012:   "We need to move from textbooks to digital....I think particularly in disadvantaged communities, I think technology can be a great equalizer.  A huge part of the equity agenda."

 

 

And if you're going to switch to digital learning, then naturally, every student will need to have their own laptop or tablet (at least those who can't afford it will get one).  The same technology that will be obsolete in two years.

 



"Schools in Los Angeles last month allocated $50 million to start buying tablets for every student; the project is expected to cost $500 million by the time it is completed. Schools in McAllen, Texas, distributed 6,800 Apple tablets last year at a cost of $20.5 million.

 

But it's not just the biggest school districts making the shift. The Eanes Independent School District in Austin is distributing more than 2,000 iPads to every student, from kindergarteners to high school seniors.

The cost: $1.2 million."

 Here's some real life math that you won't see in the Common Core curriculum: 

QUESTION:  A school buys 2000 iPads at a cost of $1.2M.  How much money did the school overpay for the iPads?  Explain your answer.  


ANSWER:  The school spent $600 for each iPad.  Best Buy has iPads for $399 each. This means that the school spent $400,000 more of the people's tax dollars than necessary.  In fraction form, this equals 1/3. In real life, this equals eight teacher's salaries.

Instead, the new Common Core Math exam will include questions like these:

If you're going to switch to digital textbooks, one can only imagine the historical information and context that will be left out during the transition.  Parents can't complain about the rewriting of history if the controversial subject is no longer even mentioned.  We already know that the CCSS will only address half of the content that was previously taught.  Problem solved.

Obama's FCC Chairman Genachowski is praising the new digital curriculum plan. 

Microsoft, Intel, Verizon and Google are praising the new digital curriculum plan, too.  In fact, they made a Digital Promise to ensure that all (low income/disadvantaged) students will have access to this technology, including NYC schools.  Who knows, maybe NYC schools had a 90% illiteracy rate before they started handing out iPads.  

 

Eventually, States will discover:

1.  You take RTTT funding, you must adopt CCSS.

2.  You adopt CCSS, you must adopt a common assessment

3.  You adopt a common assessment, you must provide broadband access in order to take the assessment exams.  This access is also necessary for the federal government to more easily collect data from the assessments.

4.  If you have broadband access, you must convert to digital textbooks.

5.  If you have digital textbooks, every child must be able to access the content both at school and at home using a mobile device.

 

 

All of this, of course, at the State's  taxpayer's expense.

 

Is it any wonder why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the writing and implementation of the Common Core Standards?

 

 

Remember when Ms. Morley gave this head-spinning answer about the cost of the exams here in Arizona?

 

"....They've agreed of a maximum cost of $15.00 per student per test cost for the TECHNOLOGY-BASED exam.  This obviously doesn't include the cost for the TECHNOLOGY  (laughs).  It's just for the test administration, scoring, all of that.  Obviously, there will be pen and paper options for students with some accommodations for those states who, you know, many of us have rural areas and don't know about our...our connectivity is probably...devices is a much easier question to figure out an answer versus what's our connectivity, broadband, with everyone doing the test at the same time.  What's going to happen?  The fully operational exam probably will not be in the first year of '14-'15 but it will be completely field tested for all of the technology enhance and then fully operational in the next year."

 

 

 

Seriously? 

She went to law school.

 

 

And the Executive Director of the Arizona State Board said this?

"There are some challenges that come along with that (technology) in terms of our existing infrastructure and devices in our schools.  And that's something that I hope is a subject of conversation in this session."

 

 

Oh, we're going to pay for it.  But, let's cram this down the throats of our citizens first.  We can worry about the logistics, cost and lost freedom later......

 

 

Department Of Education Working With George Soros' Open Society Foundation

Tucked inside this video of the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, is a screen shot of a notice announcing a contest sponsored by the Department of Education, the non profit Creative Commons and George Soros' Open Society Foundation.

You can view the contest "winners" and entries here.

A closer look at Creative Commons:

Creative Commons is a non profit organization (who receives funding from Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation) that deals with copyright licensing of "educational" materials.

Users of Creative Commons licenses include Al Jazeera, flicker, Google, Wikipedia, and Whitehouse.gov.

Creative Commons website states:

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others....

If we are going to unleash the power of hundreds of billions of dollars of publicly funded education, research, data, and software, we need broad adoption of open policies.  For the purposes of open policies that contribute to the public good, we define policy broadly as legislation, institutional policies, and/or funder mandates."


Technical working group members of the LRMI include Microsoft, Gate Foundation, IMS Global, and of course, Creative Commons.

Creative Commons is also a co-leader for the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI).

Here is a power point presentation by the LRMI.

InBloom was funded by a $100M grant from the Gates Foundation to contract with school districts and states to store over 400 data points which can then be shared with other non profits, companies and governmental agencies.

In this March 2013 report by the LRMI, there is a chart which shows the role of inBloom

Contributors of the report, of course, included members from the Gates Foundation.  However, the name that stood out was Steve Midgley with the U.S. Dept. of Education:

Previously, Midgley worked for the FCC as the Director of Education where he "headed the team responsible for developing the education chapter of the National Broadband Plan."  This was the broadband expansion plan funded by the Obama stimulus money in 2010.  We mentioned this "Connect to Compete" effort before.  Expanding broadband access was a requirement which laid the groundwork necessary for this effort to work.

Naturally, Mr. Midgley was then promoted to the Dept. of Education after his work at the FCC.

Throw in the George Soros connection and one might wonder what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

To The Obama Administration, EVERYTHING Is A "Civil Rights Issue Of Our Generation"

First, it was broadband connections.

From the FCC website:

"Closing the digital divide isn’t just an economic issue, it’s one of the great civil rights challenges of our time. Broadband can be the great equalizer."

NAACP even said,

 

"The thought of civil rights often brings to mind images of historic marches and boycotts. A generation ago, such undertakings brought attention to unequal treatment, encouraging action among those who could work to promote equality.

 

In the age of information, inequality doesn’t look the same as it did in the 20th century. Today’s civil rights challenges include digital inequality."

Then we heard from Arne Duncan that EDUCATION was the great "civil rights issue of our generation."

"Improving education is not just a moral obligation of society, it is not just an economic imperative. It's the

CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE OF OUR GENERATION ."

 

 

Today, it's amnesty    immigration reform.

 

Eric Holder spoke last week to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and said,

 

“Creating a pathway to earned citizenship is a critical element of any comprehensive immigration reform plan....Establishing legal status for the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants is a matter of civil and human rights."

Mobile Devices For Every Learner

We recently posted an article on Obama's plans to install broadband access to schools and (low income) communities, opening the door for "free" mobile devices for each student.

If you give a kid an iPad.


Here is a recent public service announcement published by the U.S. Office of Education Technology. While Obama might have attempted to hide the agenda of his administration in the past, clearly they are open about it now.

"ALL learners need access to personal, portable, and engaging mobile learning, IN and OUT of school."