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education Archives – Concerned Women for America

Mar 05 2023
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Ellisville: How Schools are Putting Children at Risk – Saturday, March 11

By | Missouri | No Comments

How Schools Are Putting Children at Risk

With Glen Becker

 

The Concerned Women for America (CWA) of Missouri St. Louis Prayer/Action Chapter invites you to their Saturday, March 11 meeting in Ellisville.

 

Glen Becker is a parent with 15 years of professional cyber security experience. Becker will present “How Schools Are Putting Children at Risk by not Protecting Their Information.”

 

Details

When: Saturday, March 11

Time: 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Location: The Pillar Foundation, 15820 Clayton Road, Ellisville, MO 63011

Contact: For additional information, contact Stephanie Rubach Marshall at 314-717-2694 or  [email protected].  

Men, women, and teens are welcome to attend.

 

About the presentation:

Glen Becker’s presentation will include an interactive discussion covering school policies that place families at risk by not protecting personal information. Learn what to look out for in school policies, know your rights as parents, understand what the school is collecting and the risk to which your kids are being exposed. Becker will also present how child predators access this data, why child sex trafficking is growing because of school applications, the reasons why schools distribute parent/student data for individual gain, and which companies data mine your information.

Mar 03 2023
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You Gotta Love Educational Savings Accounts

By | Education, LBB, News and Events | No Comments

ESAs, as they are known, empower parents to make the best choice for their children’s education. It gives parents some of the public funds that the state often misuses in each child’s public education, allowing parents to use it for educational purposes in the best way they see fit. For example, parents can use it to cover private school tuition or online learning programs. Funds can be used for private tutoring, homeschooling, or other educational materials. The possibilities are endless. The choice is in the hands of the persons most interested in the child’s success: the parents. This is good. Parents need school choice.

 

Contrary to what you will hear from some detractors, ESAs do not destroy public schools. Parents who feel their public school is working need not change. They need not apply to receive the money and can continue as they have before. But the reality for millions of American children is that their public school system is failing them, and they are stuck in that failing school or system because of how the law has been set up.

 

Recent national exam results revealed “the steepest declines ever recorded on National Assessment of Educational Progress” in math proficiency. Just 26% of eighth graders were proficient! Fourth graders did not fare much better, just 36% were deemed proficient. Reading scores also declined. Only about one in three students met the proficiency standards.

 

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called these results “appalling and unacceptable.” But Secretary Cardona and the overwhelming majority of the Democrats’ leadership oppose school choice. Their solution is to pump more money into failing schools while ignoring their pathetic record.

 

I hope the pandemic has opened the eyes of many Americans to the toxic environment that drives educational policy nationwide. Virtually every educational bureaucracy, pressured by influential teachers’ unions, forced the unscientific and irrational policy of prolonged school closures, not to mention the cruel and unnecessary forced masking policies on young children.

 

It was simply amazing to read in the pages of The New York Times just this week (almost four years after the start of the pandemic!), “The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?” The article highlighted the “most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illness—including Covid-19.” The lead author of the study, Oxford epidemiologist Tom Jefferson, was quoted saying there is no evidence that masks make any difference, “Full stop.”

 

Yes, after all they put us through— after all they put our children through. They knew it was all for nothing. It was a show. This is infuriating, especially when it comes to children, because although the masks did nothing to “stop the spread” (not in two weeks, two months, or more than two years), they did do something in terms of harming our children’s educational, linguistic, social, and emotional development. Our children have paid the price of their incompetence.

 

That is a big reason you are hearing and will continue to hear more about ESAs being passed in different states. We should support them in every state.

 

As of now, I believe there is a version of them (in varying degrees) in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia. Let us pray for many more in the coming years.

Dec 15 2022
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Loudoun County Hellscape Part II: Reckless Disregard for Women’s Safety

By | Defense of Family, Education, LBB, News and Events, Sex Trafficking / Pornography, Virginia | No Comments

The abduction and sexual assault of a female student at Broad Run High School were preventable. This much the grand jury report states unequivocally—and appropriately so. The school administrators’ reckless disregard for women’s safety was systemic and has been going on for years at Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS).

When the perpetrator raped a young woman at Stone Bridge High School, the first time that we know of, the school had already been alerted to his dangerous sexual tendencies. When a teacher alerted her superiors, the administrators questioned her motivations. You see, the boy who ended up assaulting two female students wore a skirt. LCPS strives to be very sensitive, welcoming, and accepting of transgender students. That’s the priority.

When the rape of the young woman in the female bathroom was first reported, one of the first emails explaining the situation was from LCPS’ chief operating officer, who stated unequivocally that the incident “related to policy 8040.” The grand jury report notes, “Policy 8040 addresses the rights of transgender and gender-expansive students.” In other words, the focus of LCPS from the beginning was not on the victims and the safety of other female students potentially at risk but on the perpetrator’s rights…

 

Click here to read the rest of Mario’s exclusive Substack column. And be sure to subscribe below to never miss one of his posts again!

Dec 13 2022
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Loudoun County Hellscape Part I.5: Indictments Issued

By | Defense of Family, Education, LBB, News and Events, Virginia | No Comments

Part II of our series discussing Loudoun County Public Schools’ reckless disregard for women’s safety will be published later this week (for more background, please read Part I of this series). But I felt an update was needed before that. This week, the court unsealed four indictments against two Loudoun County Public School employees. I want to express again my appreciation for the efforts of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and the special grand jury. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.

 

Fired superintendent Scott Ziegler, who lied to the public, denying the rape that occurred in a school restroom under his watch, got “one count of misdemeanor false publication (Va. Code § 18.2-209), one count of misdemeanor prohibited conduct (Va. Code § 2.2-3103), and one count of misdemeanor penalizing an employee for a court appearance (Va. Code § 18.2-465.1).” Still current Public Information Officer (which is unbelievable, although he has been “put on leave”) Wayde Byard has been charged with “one count of felony perjury (Va. Code § 18.2-434).”

 

What does it all mean? For Ziegler, the false publication charge and the penalizing an employee for a court appearance charge are merely class 3 misdemeanors, which only carry “a fine not more than $500.” Given the outrageous package deal he got when he was dismissed “without cause” (yes, still fuming about that!), these charges alone would serve as a great insult to the victims and the community. Not to mention a great incentive for the next public official to take the chance of lying to the public when in hot waters…

 

Click here to read the rest of Mario’s exclusive Substack column. And be sure to subscribe below to never miss one of his posts again!

Dec 09 2022
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Loudoun County Hellscape Part I: Victims Be Damned

By | Defense of Family, Education, LBB, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

The weight of writing about this story has been almost unbearable. Every keystroke requires an unusual sort of effort accompanied by a prayer that God may grant the grace of a positive impact. “Positive” is not a word you would associate with the events of the past few years at Loudoun County Public Schools. And although we should be incredibly grateful to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares for appointing a grand jury to investigate these events and to the citizens who served on the grand jury, reading the report is painstakingly frustrating.

 

The report finds leadership failures at the highest levels of school administrations that are appalling, immoral, and should be criminal. Yet, no indictments have been issued. We will, therefore, examine these failures in a series of posts meant to stress the gravity of these events and amplify the victim’s continued cry for justice. Part I: Victims Be Damned.

 

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the grand jury report is its lack of focus on the victims. But before I get into that, a quick summary of the events is in order…

 

Click here to read the rest of Mario’s exclusive Substack column. And be sure to subscribe below to never miss one of his posts again!

Oct 10 2022
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Public Comment Period Open for Virginia Schools 2022 Model Policies

By | Virginia | No Comments

Gov. Glen Younkin (Republican) released the new 2022 Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools.

 

The model policies uphold parents’ basic rights to oversee their child’s education and well-being. This policy strikes down former Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration policy, which held a radical gender ideology that endangered students’ privacy and safety, infringed on free speech, and created a rift between parents and their children. 

 

The redrawn draft of Gov. Youngkin’s 2022 Model Policies offers a significant breakthrough. The policies:

  • Exclude all gender terms and clarifies that “sex” refers simply to biological sex;
  • Provide statutory and legal references that back policies safeguarding protections for parental rights and students’ privacy and safety rights;
  • Restrain schools from encouraging or instructing school workforce from keeping from their parent or legal guardian, gender-related information about a student;
  • Declare student participation in athletics must correspond with their biological sex.

There is a public comment period for the citizens of Virginia to weigh in on the 2022 model policies. The deadline to submit comments is Wednesday, October 26, 2022. This revised model policy is only a draft and does not have a final approval. Your comments are vitally important to ensure passage.

 

Take Action!

  1. Click here to access the comments page.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “View and Enter Comments” link.
  3. Forward this email to family and friends.

 

Join us in prayer: Father God, we thank you for Gov. Youngkin’s actions to restore parental rights to oversee their children’s education and well-being while reversing dangerous radical gender ideology in Virginia’s schools.  Jesus said, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” Luke 17:2. Protect the minds and hearts of our school children.

 

Thank you! 
Teresa Pregnall
State Director

Feb 04 2022
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Shining a Light on Education

By | Education, LBB, News and Events | No Comments

I believe it was Voltaire who said, “Common sense is not so common.” Such is the case for the educational bureaucracy suffocating our children’s future with their sociological experiments in public schools. Parental involvement and transparency seem like common sense requirements to any successful public-school program, but not according to the radicals who so often have taken over education in our cities and states. They are hurting our kids, putting on them unnecessary burdens to satisfy their personal cravings while actively shielding themselves from accountability by keeping parents in the dark.

The age of Tik Tok has exposed how a disturbing number of teachers use their classrooms for self-affirmation, with many planning their “coming out” as LGBTQ+ as teaching exercises, or tricking students into pledging to the LGBTQ+ flag, or incentivizing them to attend Antifa rallies for classroom credit, or promoting Critical Race Theory (CRT) themes to shame white students about their “privilege.” The list is endless.

The curriculum and books assigned are often chosen to support these same radical ideas. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (Republican) recently brought attention to one book being used. In a recent interview, she quoted from the “memoir-manifesto” called “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by the self-identified “non-binary” author George Johnson. The scene she mentioned describes a graphic and disturbing sexual act between two cousins, both male. I will not quote the passage as it is too graphic, but, just so you get a taste, it starts with, “You told me to take my pajamas, my pajama pants … You then took off your shorts, followed by your boxers.”

There are hundreds of books like this in our K-12 school libraries all over the country. Some may be in your child’s school. But you are kept in the dark by design.

The answer to the works of darkness is always light. This is the invitation that Paul gives us in Ephesians 5:11 to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

In that spirit, I want to highlight for you one effort that every state should take up. These are efforts to require school curriculum, resources, and training materials to be posted and easily searchable to the public online. If your state does not have this law, I encourage you to approach your elected state representative or senator with the idea. Christopher Rufo at the Manhattan Institute, who has been an important voice exposing the CRT tentacles in our society, has a model bill called “A Model for Transparency in School Training and Curriculum,” which can be a useful starting point.

But a number of states have similar legislation in the works — Arizona, Utah, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, among others.

Transparency is the key. No longer should school bureaucracies be able to shield bad actors within our education system, as they have done for years.

But rest assured that school bureaucracies will not give up that power easily. It must be demanded. By you and me.

Oct 30 2021
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State Director Talks All Things CWA and Dobbs

By | North Dakota | No Comments

On October 14, Concerned Women for America (CWA) of North Dakota State Director Linda Thorson told No Apologies with Becker BEK Tv viewers about CWA! Find out the reasons Linda is excited for all that Concerned Women for America is doing, and the reason Linda invited all to join us in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on December 1 for a historic moment in our history!

Watch Linda’s interview below.

Sep 10 2021
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Do You Know Who is Teaching Your Children?

By | Defense of Family, LBB, News and Events | No Comments

America is changing. Perhaps you have noticed. Our cities, our communities, our schools do not reflect American values, let alone Christian ones. We must begin to pay attention to who is teaching our children if we have ordinarily not paid attention in the past. A series of recent exposures have put an exclamation point to the urgency of this development.

Meet Kristin Pitzen, English teacher at Back Bay High School in Costa Mesa, Orange County, California. Ms. Pitzen proudly posted the video on one of her social media accounts (now deleted), saying this:

“Okay, so during third period, we have announcements, and they do the pledge of allegiance. I always tell my class, ‘Stand if you feel like it; don’t stand if you feel like it. Say the words if you; [sic] don’t have to say the words.’ So, my class decided to stand but not say the words. Totally fine. [Grin] Except for the fact that my room does not have a flag. It used to be there [points toward a wall]. [More grinning] But I took it down during COVID because [whispers] it made me uncomfortable. And, ugh, I packed it away, and I don’t know where [more grinning] and I haven’t found it yet [laugh]. But my kid today goes, ‘Hey, it’s kind of weird that we just stand and, you know, we say it to nothing.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, well, you know [sarcastically] I gotta find it. Like, I’m working on it. I got you.’ [Shaking head mocking the kid that she is deceiving while laughing hysterically] ‘In the meantime,’ I tell this kid, ‘We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.’ And he, like, looks around and goes, ‘Oh, that one?’ [pointing at a big LGBTTQQIAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual) flag the teacher is proudly displaying for the class].”

She could not stop laughing…

Click here to read the rest of Mario’s exclusive Substack column. And be sure to subscribe below to never miss one of his posts again!

Aug 09 2021
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From the Frontlines: How This Mom Is Putting Woke School Boards on Notice

By | Education, Media, News and Events | No Comments

Today, the Loudoun County School Board in Virginia will meet once again to vote on various matters concerning what some parents cite as “indoctrination” in their schools. The latest in a trove of Critical Race Theory clashes, this meeting was rescheduled after the first attempt was shut down earlier this summer, citing too much chaos.

To offer some insights into this new ground zero, Concerned Women for America’s CEO and President, Penny Nance, sat down with Monica Gill – a wife, mother, author, and educator who has spent over 25 years in the education system right at the center of it all: Loudoun County, VA. Monica has been on the frontlines of this battle, defending the Biblical worldview, and bringing attention to the damaging effects Critical Race Theory is having on students.

Listen to the full conversation and get some advice from Monica on what others can do who are willing to stand in the gap. You can listen by clicking below or by searching “Concerned Women Today” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you normally stream.

Jul 05 2021
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Webinar: How to Lobby the Education Bureaucracy

By | Education, News and Events | No Comments

Date: Thursday, July 8
Time: 4:00 p.m. Eastern [3:00 p.m. Central; 2:00 p.m. Mountain; 1:00 p.m. Pacific)

Webinar Description:
Navigating and influencing the education bureaucracy can be very confusing and somewhat intimidating. It is vital to know when and how to approach your local and state school boards. This webinar will teach citizen activists effective techniques on how to go before school boards, state committees, or teacher groups with pressing concerns in order to cause change. You will walk away knowing you can make positive changes for your children and the community.

Register here.

 

Mar 03 2021
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State Director Testifies on Two Education Bills

By | Maine | No Comments

COVID-19 restrictions are wreaking havoc on our students’ education opportunities. Concerned Women for America of Maine State Director Penny Morrell testified in support of two important education bills pertaining to the coronavirus.

L.D. 70:  a bill that would allow a parent or guardian of a student who has been affected by COVID-19 to keep their student in the student’s current grade level.  Read Penny’s testimony.

LD 430: a bill to provide for school choice and online learning opportunities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read Penny’s testimony.

 

Aug 25 2020
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The Old-School Tactics of Teachers Unions May Not Survive COVID-19

By | Education, Legislative Updates, News and Events | No Comments

Across the country, millions of families are faced with cobbling together strategies to make a new school year work. In many places, schools could have been working on better solutions, or at least not resisting them. Legislators could have helped by expanding educational options for students and providing the financial support to follow.

Liberals have stood on the wrong side of education reform for decades. Backers of a Biden presidency should know the tide will turn against supporting families with greater choice in education, even during a pandemic.

In many politically liberal school districts, public schools have gone into virtual retreat instead of working overtime to find non-traditional solutions. Creative minds could think of many possibilities:  grouping smaller cohorts of students, alternating schedules, ensuring students with special needs receive on-site services. In some places, this is happening. Other districts, however, spent the entire summer in limbo and defaulted to “virtual” learning which most recognize was a real failure in the spring,

This has left many working parents in a lurch, including those in my Northern Virginia community.

Parents are concerned about health, but they are also scrambling for strategies. They are the ones getting creative since their school administrators aren’t. Districts run by left-leaning school boards have started warning against innovative pod learning, even shaming parents against such alternatives in the name of “equity.”  Here’s what Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) said in a Message for Parents on Tutoring Pods:

“While FCPS doesn’t and can’t control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students. Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families can’t provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for the service.”

Knowing parents are desperate for options, FCPS has figured out how it can use the crisis to its financial advantage. A number of schools will offer paid childcare for elementary-aged students charging parents up to $1500 a month for the privilege of sending their students through the schoolhouse door.

Entrepreneurial parents might soon find that other educational options are more effective than the traditional schools – more time on fact-based academic learning, and none on feelings-based self-awareness lessons and gender unicorns. They might just start to question the value of their local tax dollars going to these agenda-driven government-run schools.

The National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have resisted returning to class and undermined strategies to cope with school closures, exposing how the liberal establishment stands guard over an old-world education order. Their vocal opposition sounds tone-deaf to the realities of the current crisis for families. If the priority was on educating students, they would be cheering for solutions, not posting threats about learning pods widening the divide between “have and have nots” (which only underscores why schools should be opening their doors).

These old-school tactics have long been apparent. Anything that threatens the power of the teachers’ unions threatens their existence. They are enemies of expanding educational choice because they hold monopoly power over government-run schools. They attack educational scholarship programs, even ones that give low-income parents the chance to send their kids to a higher-performing school because competition would cut into their job security.

Based on voter attitudes, the NEA and AFT might be losing their grip. Their response to the current pandemic could be exposing this fear.

Black and Latino parents support the concept of school vouchers because all parents hope to give their kids the best shot at academic success. A poll  commissioned by the American Federation of Children shows the continuing strong trend that “a broad and deep coalition of voters back school choice.”  Sixty -nine percent, including 82 percent of Latinos and 68 percent of blacks, supported giving  “parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.”

For educators more interested in power than their profession, being separated from students by a computer screen instead of supervising them in person might be an added incentive to keep remote learning going as long as possible – all the more reason why the collective power of the teachers’ unions and the monopoly of government-run education should be reimagined while disruption is the norm. It’s time to overrule the old-world order in favor of an excellence-based, pandemic-flexible, family-friendly, 21st-century education system.

Doreen Denny is Vice President of Government Relations, Concerned Women for America

Aug 04 2020
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Whether or Not Schools Reopen, Families Need Choices

By | Education, Legislative Updates, News and Events | No Comments

Back to School is here, and it seems we are back to where we ended – struggling to adapt to continued uncertainty without the luxury of time on our side.  Students can ill afford to lose another semester, let alone another year.

Among the important developments of the coronavirus pandemic is the growing realization of why choice in education really matters. Now is the time to make the shift to a lasting environment of school choice that gives parents the capacity to opt into or opt out of the school setting that works for their children and their circumstances and the means to make it work.

The primacy of student well-being and effective learning dictates that in-person education cannot be a luxury for most.  Families are getting creative in how to make education possible if the schools are not going to open, and they deserve greater access and control over the money we pour into education from the local to the federal levels.

Information from the President’s team underscores the importance of the real issues that parents need to consider:

“Failure to offer in-person classes could harm students’ development, especially those in disadvantaged communities.  Nationwide, nearly 30 million American students rely on schools for free or reduced meals.   More than 70% of children receiving mental health services do so at school, and nearly all therapies for children with intellectual or physical disabilities are performed at school.”

The Trump Administration is also aware that families need the flexibility to weigh decisions before them:

“It is vital that parents be allowed to weigh both the benefits and risks of sending their child back to school, including the level of community spread and the makeup of their household, especially for multi-generational households.”

That is why President Trump’s emphasis on encouraging schools to reopen safely coupled with proposals to expand the educational choices of families need action now.  Specifically, President Trump is calling for legislation to ensure that schools have the funding and incentives they need to safely reopen this fall and empower families with school choice.

“To encourage schools to make in-person classes available this fall, the President is requesting $105 billion in education funding as part of the next coronavirus relief bill—$70 billion of which will directly support K-12 education. Approximately $35 billion of the $70 billion will be reserved for schools that reopen.  If schools do not reopen, funding should follow students so parents can send their child to the private, charter, religious, or home school of their choice.”

The School Choice Now Act, introduced by Sens. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), provides a mechanism for giving scholarships to students for use at the school setting of their choice, including home-based schooling, and includes robust protections for schools and families to operate free of government intrusion that could compromise their mission or beliefs.

Families are being faced with unprecedented obligations to assume primary responsibility for keeping their children engaged and learning.  The fragility of the public-school system, including how teacher unions can hold it hostage, is being exposed.  The shortcomings of traditional ways of delivering education in a technological age that intensifies the divide between have and have-nots is more obvious than ever.   We cannot afford limping along for another year in the same way we saw last year limp to a close.

In a pandemic age, education must be adaptable.  If teacher unions are going to prevent public schools from reopening, then now is the time to allow greater access and investment in our private, faith-centered, and home-based schools.   President Trump’s focus is on target:  giving parents the means to consider better options and the choice to take them.

Jun 26 2020
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CWA Thanks Secretary of Education

By | Blog, CEO, Education, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

Cute Filipina Female Athlete

As we recognize the 48th Anniversary of Title IX this week, Penny Nance sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos encouraging decisive action to enforce Title IX’s mandate of equal opportunity and protection on the basis of biological sex, including for female athletes.  She also requested action on CWA’s civil rights complaints against two universities for violating the Title IX rights of female college athletes because they rostered male athletes identifying as women to compete on their women’s teams, winning conference and national championships:

“On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women supporters of Concerned Women for America (CWA) around the nation, I want to thank you and the Trump Administration for the Department of Education’s (ED) support to protect female student-athletes under Title IX. We also write to urge you to take proactive measures to ensure consistency, equality, and fair play in every athletics department in every educational institution across the country…

“CWA currently has two complaints before ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), where two institutions (Franklin Pierce University and the University of Montana) have engaged in blatant violations of Title IX protections for female student-athletes by allowing biological men to compete on women’s teams in athletic competitions, inflicting irreparable inequity and injury to their college careers…

“The battle to protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports is ground zero in the fight for women’s rights. As mothers, daughters, granddaughters, sisters all, we urge you to heed our plea to stand firmly for our rights as women and take bold actions to ensure Title IX is protected at every level of education in our country.”

Read the entire letter to Secretary DeVos here.

May 01 2020
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education students

Health Education in Texas Public Schools Depends on You

By | Texas | No Comments

Background
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) are the standards adopted by the State Board of Education (SBOE) to guide what our children need to accomplish in a given discipline at each grade level.  Textbooks are then written to conform to these standards. Every ten years, the TEKS are revised for a given discipline.  You the public have the opportunity to shape the standards by providing feedback on the standards to your elected State Board of Education member.  This year, the Health Education TEKS are being revised. Textbooks will also be revised in the coming months.

Health Education TEKS – Drafts Available for Review
The Health Education TEKS Work Groups proposals are posted online here. Work Group E is currently working on merging the six proposals from the four workgroups.  Once that is completed, the final draft will be posted in May. As soon as the Work Group E drafts are posted and the May SBOE Meeting details are announced, we will provide those links and details.

Several of Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) core issues are impacted by the current revisions (these are noted and addressed below the signature line.*) This is why CWA of Texas is encouraging you to review the draft proposals of the standards and then write a letter to your elected State Board of Education member with any concerns you have on the standards.

Immediate Action Needed

  1. Please review the proposed standards.
  2. Write a letter to your member of the State Board of Education, addressing any of your concerns on the proposed standards. Click here to find your State Board of Education member. Be sure to let him/her know that you are a member of Concerned Women for America of Texas.
  3. Enlist parents and grandparents to review the standards and voice their concerns.

Please Pray
Our Heavenly Father, You have gifted parents in Texas with 5,431,910 precious children who are now enrolled in Texas public schools.  The future of our nation and, more importantly, Your Kingdom depends on their training.  Your word says in Psalm 172:3-5:

“Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.”

We understand that You have entrusted this gift to us, and You have instructed us how to care for them:
“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  Deuteronomy 6:6.

Please guide us and help us be energetic and unwavering in protecting these children from a secular world that aims to remove their innocence. Help us raise them up to be clean vessels for your kingdom.

Ann Hettinger
State Director

*Suggestions related to CWA’s core issues:

SE – Student Expectations

Students should learn to respect the Sanctity of Life by recognizing that the baby in the womb is a life and that the baby is created through the natural and beautiful act of the marital embrace between a man and woman.  Therefore, SEs that address fetal development should include information similar to the Women’s Right to Know booklet published by Texas Health and Human Services.  SEs on life stages of a human being should include more than just birth, dying, and death.  Pregnancy should not be listed as a “consequence” of sexual activity as if that is the worst thing that can happen while sexually transmitted diseases (STD) are presented as normal and treatable at such young ages.  Skin to skin, oral sex, and vaginal sex are listed as modes of STD/STI transmission for 7-8 graders as if the three sexual activities are equal.  We support sexual risk avoidance (SRA) as an optimal primary health prevention strategy.  This teaches that students should reserve intimate sexual activity until they are married.  The secondary intervention strategy, sexual risk reduction (SRR) moderates that by teaching about the use of contraceptives.

In Defense of the Family, we are encouraged that the workgroup in charge of revising that section, includes a SE stating that the “process of fertilization occurs between a man and a woman through sexual intercourse.”  Texas TEKS should reflect the expectations of abstinence outside of marriage promoting lifelong fidelity and healthy family formation.  When students learn about the different body systems, the reproductive system is the only system in which each human being has only half of the system.  The other half of the system is required to complete the reproductive system, a natural truth of the complementarity of the male and female bodies.

Protecting children’s natural innocence is an important part of fighting Sexual Exploitation.  When a young child is introduced to mature subjects on abuse, trafficking, human sexuality, and sexting, they are being groomed for early sexual initiation, risky sexual activity, and sexual exploitation.  SEs should instill their personal value and worth as human beings to protect them against all destructive future risky behaviors.

CWA believes that authority should be returned to parents for all areas of their child’s Education, including Health education.  In the workgroup drafts, “parent” is mentioned 59 times while “trusted adult” is included 53 times.  SEs should always be written to refer children to their parents and legal guardians rather than the public school recognized trusted adult, nurse, or physician.  Fundamentally, human sexuality instruction should be a subject taught by parents so that the parent can customize the message to the individual child’s cognitive ability and maturity level.

Jan 12 2020
0
Map of MO

Action Needed: Local Control of Missouri’s Public School Districts at Risk

By | Missouri | No Comments

Time-sensitive – Comments Deadline is Wednesday, January 15

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released the revised proposed rule, 5 CSR 20-100.295 Missouri School Improvement Program 6 (MSIP 6), for public comment on December 16, 2019. If enacted, the proposed rules changes will diminish local control and centralize the management of our public school districts.

DESE’s MSIP 6 webpage describes the difference between its current standards (MSIP 5) and the proposed standards: “The most recent generation of MSIP (MSIP 5) focuses on student performance [emphasis added] metrics – output measures. The next generation will continue to emphasize standards for student performance but will also emphasize leading indicators – inputs in economic terms – that will ensure healthy school systems and the continuous improvement process.”

In other words, DESE is effectively proposing standards that will diminish local control and centralize school district management at the department.

Take Action:
Make your voice heard by providing your comments concerning the proposed rule change. Click here to enter your comments. The public comment period deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 15. You may use the sample language below or respond in your own words. You can read the entire proposed rule available on the website to consider other standards for comment.

The number of responses DESE receives is VERY important. As a reminder, the first proposed rule requiring schools to teach gender diversity was withdrawn because DESE received almost 1500 responses opposing the proposed change.

Sample comments:

DESE’s proposed MSIP standards change Missouri’s school district accreditation standards to effectively centralize authority over districts at the state level in violation of Missouri law. That is, several proposed standards limit the discretion of local school boards to manage districts and determine personnel needs by requiring boards to structure their purpose and personnel organization in specific ways in order to be accredited.
OR
The proposed MSIP 6 standards create a double standard in which local districts are held accountable for compliance with state statutes, but DESE evaluators are not accountable for standards that are themselves incompliant with Missouri statutes. Furthermore, word choice used in several standards, for example, stakeholders (which is not defined in Missouri statute and may include non-resident representatives of advocacy organizations) rather than taxpayer (which would require representation of residents), allows DESE evaluators to determine the definition of terms; thereby increasing its power to control the influences affecting policies districts will be compelled to implement to score well on MSIP 6 evaluations.
OR
The proposed MSIP standards should be reviewed for alignment with Missouri law and ensure the protection of local school board authority.

Thank you.
Bev Ehlen
State Director

Oct 18 2019
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education students

Join Us! Feisty & Feminine Workshop – Topeka – October 24, 2019

By | Kansas | No Comments

Are you concerned about the many moral issues threatening our community, state, and nation?  Especially all the issues with our public schools?  There is a cultural battle raging in America, and Concerned Women for America is on the frontline protecting our values through prayer, education, and advocacy.

Are you ready to join us in these efforts? It’s time to put your gloves on for the cultural fight we are battling.

Please join us next Thursday, October 24, to discover how, together, through prayer and action, we can make a difference. Whether or not you have attended a previous Feisty & Feminine workshop, we invite you to join us at next week’s workshop. It is time to step up, or reengage, and learn the issues well so we can pray and act accordingly.  

Feisty & Feminine Workshop
Date: Thursday, October 24, 2019
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Location: First Southern Baptist Church, 1912 Gage, Topeka, Kansas

Workshop Agenda:

  1. Watching the documentary Rescuing Our Children and Our Nation, which features speakers Alex Neman and Samuel Blumenfeld, author of the book Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children. Phillis Setchell, CWA of Kansas’s Research Analyst, will be leading this part of the workshop.
  2. Learning how to build an impactful relationship with your local school board member.
  3. Update on the progress of the on the pro-life amendment.

I cannot help but be reminded of Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and his mother Eunice, who Paul wrote about in 2 Timothy 1:5 “When I call  to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”  The time is now to be as active as possible in the education of our children and grandchildren.

I hope to see you next Thursday, October 24. Please RSVP by emailing me at [email protected] or calling 785-260-5659.  Your RSVP will help in planning for the meeting.

Barbara Saldivar
State Director
CWA of Kansas

Sep 20 2019
0

CWA’s 40th Anniversary Gala and the Equal Campus Access Act

By | Blog, Education, News and Events | No Comments

CWA’s 40th Anniversary Gala and the Equal Campus Access Act:  CWA’s Legislative Strategist, Ashley Traficant talks with Tamara Scott on Truth For Our Time. The two discuss Concerned Women for America’s 40th Anniversary Gala celebration festivities. They also discuss CWALAC’s recent lobbying efforts on Equal Campus Access Act. Watch and Listen below.

Jun 07 2019
0

Arlington Public Schools Crafting Harmful Policies for Children

By | Virginia | No Comments

In direct opposition to many parents, Arlington Public Schools (APS) is crafting transgender and gender nonconforming policies for children as young as kindergarten under the guise of nondiscrimination. These policies are being quietly pushed in Arlington, Virginia, and if successful, could be coming to your schools very soon.

Background:
You may have read this controversial news story earlier this year about the reading of the book I am Jazz to a kindergarten class at Ashlawn Elementary school in Arlington. The book, about a transgender child, was read to five-year-old kindergartners by a transgender woman who had been invited into the classroom through a relationship the county has formed with a transactivist rights organization.

After hearing about the book reading, parents began to investigate what was going on in the school and why they were not given the option of opting their child out of such a reading. What they learned was that the APS school board was working on a policy proposal they said was in regards to transgendered students’ safety and civil rights. However, should this policy be adopted, under the guise of nondiscrimination, the integration of transgender curricula and ideology will be forced upon every young child at school without parental consent.

In response to the proposed new policy, a group of politically and religiously diverse Arlington county parents came together to form the Arlington Parents Coalition to expose what is happening in the school system. Read news coverage here and here.

Action Items:
Whether you have children currently in school or not, you are a tax paying citizen and therefore have the right to voice your opinion.

  1. Please complete the APS survey on their proposed policy changes. This is an opportunity to voice your opposition to the proposed changes. The deadline to complete the survey is this coming Tuesday, June 11.
  2. Visit the Arlington Parents Coalition There you will find specific action items to fight back against the enormous overreach by the APS.
  3. If you do not live in the APS district, stay alert to similar proposed policies in your communities, and be sure to let me know of any concerns.
  4. Please pass this e-alert onto those you know. Encourage them to both pray and act.

As women and mothers, we love our children and cannot imagine the anxiety when a child is hurting about their identity. I can only feel love and compassion for children who feel as if they identify as the other sex. These children must be loved and supported by other children, teachers, and adults in their lives. God says in Matthew 25:40, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Our charge, directly from the Lord, is to care for those who are hurting.

However, we can love and support gender-dysphoric children (who make up less than 1% of the population) without advocating for the ideological transactivist indoctrination of the other 99%.

Prayer Items:
Please pray for the parents and children of Arlington. May the Lord give them extraordinary discernment. Please pray for Arlington School Board members by name.

Thank you in advance for both your prayers and actions concerning this issue.

Sincerely,
Toni DeLancey
State Director
CWA of Virginia

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