Monday, January 28, 2013

TX REP. STEVE TOTH FILES HB 760 (CSCOPE TRANSPARENCY ACT) TO ENSURE OVERSIGHT OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Also see:
Texas Teaching 'Allah is the Almighty God' - CSCOPE Cirriculum Must be Stopped
 
the following statement is from new Conservative Texas State Representative Steve Toth regarding his bill to stop the liberal indoctrination curriculum in Texas known as CSCOPE:
‎'THE CSCOPE TRANSPARENCY ACT' HB 760


STATE REPRESENTATIVE STEVE TOTH FILES HB 760 TO ENSURE CONSISTENT OVERSIGHT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM


Austin, TX- State Representative Steve Toth (R- The Woodlands) filed HB 760 today in a joint effort with other law makers and constituents to ensure that e-learning (on-line or cloud based teaching material) curriculum used in public schools falls under the oversight and approval of the State Board of Education. Many of Representative Toth's constituents have a growing concern over the lack of accountability for the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative, also known as CSCOPE. CSCOPE does not fall under the same oversight and approval as other printed materials because of its digital format. HB 760 would bring the digitized materials under the same publicly vetted process through the State Board of Education adoption process. To this date, CSCOPE has not gone through the intense Texas textbook adoption process in which public hearings are held and factual errors are documented, discussed, and verified.

CSCOPE is in use by over 70% of Texas public schools. The curriculum suffers from two main areas, transparency and accountability. The most important problem is the lack of quality teaching material. "I had one teacher call me and said that she had met with five other math teachers. They were all looking at the same math-word problem and the disappointing thing is that they came up with 6 different and very defensible answers." Representative Toth continued, "teachers live in fear not only of the problematic errors but also in fear of mistakenly sharing with a parent what's being taught in CSCOPE. Teachers are actually forced to sign non-disclosure agreements before they use it in the classroom. Why? Because the Education Service Centers know how angry parents would be to hear that the participants in the Boston Tea Party of 1773 are referred to as Terrorists by CSCOPE and that's just the beginning".

Other factual errors found throughout the curriculum have not been corrected and have been used to teach millions of children faulty math, reading, science, and history. Educators who sign a non-disclosure agreement are forced to administer poor tests which force good educators to either put up with the bad curriculum or quit altogether.

Algebra teacher, Dr. Stan Hartzler of Luling ISD was quoted, "As good testing motivates and informs good students and teachers, so too bad testing discourages everyone and that's the problem with CSCOPE."

"Dr. Hartzler is the kind of man we want and need in the classroom, but he can't fight CSCOPE any longer so he left teaching. Great teachers should be free to make truth come alive in the hearts and minds of our youth rather than handcuffing them to a failed product. HB 760 moves to correct this problem" , said Representative Toth.

Thomas Jefferson said "If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be". We cannot afford to cripple the next generations by overlooking the education of our children. Please stand with me by contacting your Elected Officials and asking them to support HB 760 for our children.

1 comment:

  1. I applaud Rep. Toth....he sees a need to do something about it and does it. These are the kind of bills that need to be introduced, not stupid bills passed that become "distraction laws" such as using a cell phone while driving - a common sense obligation to fellow divers. Way to go, Rep Toth.....we need more reps like you.

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