The BESE Battle Continues. (Please support Kathy Edmonston and Mary Harris)

To everyone who supported and believed in me and the other FlipBESE candidates you have my utmost respect, thanks, and gratitude.  With your help we terrified our opponents into outspending us in the 100’s to one range, to fabricate and promulgate lies about us, and to actually adopt OUR platforms to defeat us. 

None of the LABI backed candidates ran on platforms claiming Common Core and PARCC were outstanding or that the state should confiscate and run all of our schools, because they knew those claims would cost them the elections. So while LABI and their allies claim education reform got a mandate in Saturday’s election, nothing could be further from the truth. You won’t see LABI’s remaining lapdogs doing anything to promote the agenda they claim they have a mandate for in their runoffs.

That means it is crystal clear (even to our opponent’s highly paid political consultants) that it was FlipBESE that won Saturday, October 24th, NOT corporate ed reform and Common Core.

Now that LABI has most of the BESE seats, and has deceived and bribed their way into unseating two of our greatest champions (Carolyn Hill and Lottie Bebee) it is more important than ever to rally around our remaining champions.

We NEED Mary Harris and Kathy Edmonston to defend our teachers, parents, and students.

For this reason I am proud to endorse and support Kathy Edmonston for the BESE district 6 runoff race against LABI owned Jason Engen.

Please support her as you would have supported me had I made the runoff. She will need all the help she can get for the evil that is coming.

Kathy has assured me she will remain steadfast and confident in her role as one of the lone voices on BESE against Common Core, and the deceitful state Superintendent John White. 

Kathy has recommitted herself to the fight and has steeled herself to be ready for anything her opponents will try to throw at her, but she can’t do this alone.

Please consider a donation to get Kathy through these final weeks.  Her donation page is: http://www.kathyforbese.com/donate.html

Please also consider donating to Mary Harris of district 4. Her donation page is: http://www.harrisforbese4.com

Thank you again for all you’ve done, and all you will do.  While some of our candidates may have lost their races due to the unscrupulous tactics of our opponents and out of state billionaires using their obscene wealth to play god with other people’s lives, our ideas actually carried the day. 

The general public does not realize they just voted to enshrine Common Core and PARCC testing, and to continue the destruction of our public schools, the maligning of our  teachers, and the mental abuse of our children. The public will understand soon enough, and when they do we will need Kathy Edmonston and Mary Harris sitting on the board to explain why.  We will need Kathy and Mary to hold these liars responsible, and to inform the media what is really going on.  Please make sure our folks get to where they are needed.

Thank you, and good luck Kathy and Mary.

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Jason France’s Leadership in the Common Core Fight in Louisiana and Why He is the Best Candidate in District 6

One of the re-occurring questions I get on the campaign trail is my position on Common Core.  So let me say this in no uncertain terms – Common Core is a disaster for Louisiana.

I was one of the first people in the state to raise the alarm bells about Common Core, starting about 3 years ago.  Before being against Common Core became cool, I was one of the lone voices against this federal overreach, and one of the earliest leaders in the movement and I received a lot of ridicule in those days. 

Before Governor candidate John Bel Edwards had formed an opinion on the subject Lee Barrios (running in BESE district 1) and I met John Bel to educate him on the topic in a CC’s coffee house a few years ago.  Edwards had not made up his mind at that point, but we did our best to set him on a path to asking more questions. 

I was a speaker at the two largest rallies against Common Core in Baton Rouge (one held on the steps of the Claiborne building, September 28th 2013 sponsored in part by the Greater New Orleans Tea Party, and another on the steps of the capital on June 14, 2014, sponsored by the Libertarian Party of Louisiana.

 

Me at the First anti-Common Core rally on steps of Claiborne building (I was a speaker and tied this banner to the staircase – September 28, 2013. 

Before the national consciousness was awakened, I was fighting and writing about Common Core on my blog.  I wrote a piece as a parent that received national attention and was used an example in national articles alongside comedian Louis C.K.  My signature piece also won the notice of Motoko Rich, from the New York Times, (who came down to Louisiana to meet with me and parents I recommended) Aljazeera America, NPR, among others. 

I am not just a statewide recognized opponent of Common Core, I am a nationally recognized one.

Here is a piece by New York Times education writer Motoko Rich where I am quoted and referenced:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/us/fight-on-common-core-is-dividing-louisiana.html?_r=0

Others who oppose the Common Core in Louisiana said the governor’s actions were more political theater than anything else. “If his intent was to stop it, it was very ineffective,” said Jason France, an education blogger who plans to run for the state education board next year. “All it’s done is lead to chaos.”

As noted in the preceding article, Common Core is one of the reasons I decided to run for the state school board.  I announced my intentions in April of 2014 and identified Common Core as one of the issues I wanted to address.

Here is one of my more popular pieces on Common Core that gained nationwide and even international attention with many tens of thousands of views and republications.

https://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/my-attempt-at-completing-my-first-graders-common-core-math-homework-and-a-little-historical-ccss-context/

That piece starts with an intro of the situation in Louisiana most people were unaware of.  Louisiana’s BESE board adopted Common Core in 2010 before the standards were even completed and without following the Administrative Procedures Act or providing a chance for the public to provide input.  In fact, the public could not easily have provided input because the standards were not even finalized!

If you would like to see 60 or so more essays/articles from me dealing with Common Core and PARCC exam problems, why not visit my blog?

https://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/tag/common-core/

https://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/tag/ccss/

https://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/?s=parcc

Believe it or not, that’s not all of them. 

I also wrote Op Ed pieces for various Louisiana newspapers on Common Core and the opt out movement.  The newspapers that dared publish my pieces received heat from the business community most of them were removed from being displayed online.  However I posted one on my blog that I sent to the American Press in the Lake Charles area.  I think it’s a pretty good piece and helped spur one of the greatest opt-out movements in the state.

To PARCC or Move On: https://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/to-parcc-or-move-on/

Frankly I doubt anyone in this state has written or published more about Common Core than yours truly. 

• I am the fighter you want in your corner on the BESE board for this issue and countless other ones. 
• I have been following and writing about this issue intensely for years. 
• I am the only candidate in district 6 with kids in the public school system.  (The other Jason talks about his kids under 4 in commercials, but what he doesn’t talk about is his 12 year old daughter named Lille who’s only ever been in private school or that he never attended public school either. )

I have cute kids too, but unlike Engen, mine are actually in public schools. I also don’t need to exploit them in commercials and mail outs for votes or to make myself seem qualified – unlike somebody else I know. . .

I guess Engen’s 12 year old didn’t make the cut – since she would be an inconvenient truth that he is only interested in this position for big business:

You see, Engen is backed by Big Business.  That’s why he can afford to spend hundreds of thousands on commercials running round the clock (for an unpaid position. Engen even decided to run because he felt no one was looking out for big business’ interests. 

The Hayride first asked Engen why he’s running for BESE. He says he’s in the race because no one represented the business side who he calls the end user of the education system.

Engen did not decide to run to help out Louisiana families, but to plug children into a business pipeline (he said this at the Leaders with Vision forum on October 6th) for his employers and his single significant backer, LABI/Lane Grigsby.

In contrast, I am backed my dozens and dozens of small donors.  I have no PACs supporting me, no corporations, no out of state billionaires, no unions, no big businesses, no real-estate firms, no technology vendors – no one but folks like you. 

I am your candidate and I hope you will be my voters.

October 24th is less than a week away.  I hope for all our sakes, and the sakes of my children in our public schools, that you understand I’m not just the right choice, but the only one that’s already been there for you when you needed me most. 

Will you be there for me now? 

Please help me help you with your vote this Saturday, October 24th.  I am Number 45 on your ballot.

Thanks,

Jason France

Candidate BESE district 6 (Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston, Tangipahoa, Washington)

 

P.S. Take a look at a few of my other projects over the years in the fight to rid our state of Common Core.

Me presenting at the Common Good Preserving Public Education Conference (Diane Ravitch recommended me and gave my intro to conference) talking about the dangers of Common Core and need Liberals and Conservatives to work together to kick out Common Core. 

 

At the Acadian Patriots meeting, talking about the false PR campaign for Common Core and the tactics used by the LDOE to trick parents and teachers.

 

Part of campaign I started to raise awareness of the dangers of Common Core during Mardi Gras last year.

 

A graphic I had commissioned for a blog post explaining the dangers of Common Core with a shout out to Matthew.

 

One of several large billboards my blog was featured on (bottom left corner) and recommended for parents to research the dangers of Common Core.