Missouri Lawmakers Request Funds For Tin Foil Hat Making Supplies

Missouri lawmakers want to add $8 to the pending state budget for tin foil hats. The taxpayer funds would be used to buy high density aluminum to make hats for those who oppose Common Core. The proposed Missouri budget with the sophomoric mocking gesture included, heads for a full house vote this week.

The Missouri budget amendment specified that the tin foil hats would be designed to “deflect drone and/or black helicopter mind reading and control technology.” The Common Core related amendment was proposed by Republican Representative Mike Lair, the education funding committee chair and a retired teacher.

Protests against the Common Core education program are ongoing in a multitude of states. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, a group of parents opposing the one-size-fits-all approach and student datamining program were able to temporarily halt further implementation of the Race to the Top (Obama administration education program) companion project.

Even teachers unions are now coming out against Common Core. Excerpt from a statement National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel about the Obama administration’s education strategy:

“I am sure it won’t come as a surprise to hear that in far too many states, implementation has been completely botched. Seven of ten teachers believe that implementation of the standards is going poorly in their schools. Worse yet, teachers report that there has been little to no attempt to allow educators to share what’s needed to get Common Core state standards implementation right. In fact, two-thirds of all teachers report that they have not even been asked how to implement these new standards in their classrooms.”

Common Core is a highly controversial public education initiative which has led many to fear that national data on students and families will be collected by the federal government – a charge that the nation’s leading home school legal organization now is echoing.

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) says Common Core is “laying the foundation for a national database filled with personal student data.” Although the United States Department of Education would be breaking the law if a national database was created, such a database seems inevitable now, HSLDA says.

“Home School Legal Defense Association has long opposed the creation of such a database,” HSLDA authors Will Estrada and Katie Tipton wrote. “We believe that it would threaten the privacy of students, be susceptible to abuse by government officials or business interests, and jeopardize student safety. We believe that detailed data systems are not necessary to educate young people. Education should not be an Orwellian attempt to track students from preschool through assimilation into the workforce.”

In January 2012, the Department of Educated altered the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which formerly prohibited third parties from having access to students’ information — names of family members, living address, Social Security number, date and place of birth, disciplinary record and biometric record. Obviously, textbook and technology companies, as well as colleges and educational resource material manufacturers, could benefit greatly from detailed information about students.

How do you feel about Common Core and the Missouri tin foil hat budget amendment?

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