QUICK FACTS ON AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

• Only a constitutional amendment will ensure that parental rights will be honored in the United States, and protected from the threat of international law.
• Only 33 amendments have ever been passed by Congress, and of these, only 27 have been ratified by the states.
• Passing an amendment takes supporters at every level of government – in Congress, in committees, and in the states. Every American can play a vital role in this process by signing the petition and involving others in this campaign.

Romeike Decision Handed Down

On Tuesday a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit handed down its decision in the case of Romeike v. Holder. The panel ruled unanimously that the Romeikes’ desire to choose the education of their children did not constitute sufficient grounds for granting asylum.

ParentalRights.org President Michael Farris, who represents the Romeikes in this case, will appeal the decision by requesting an en banc hearing (one by the entire panel of judges) in the Sixth Circuit. Beyond that, Farris and the Romeikes are prepared to appeal to the United States Supreme Court if necessary.

We plan to present a more thorough treatment of this court decision and its impact on American parental rights in the days ahead. It will not be in next week’s newsletter, as we have exciting news to share regarding the Parental Rights Amendment. Yes, a time to take action is at hand!

That said, we wanted you to know of the decision that was handed down and that Mr. Farris and his team are appealing this decision.

Thank you for standing with us to defend the rights of all fit parents to direct the education, upbringing, and care of their children.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

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Defending Parental Rights from Bad State Law

Every year parental rights come under attack in state legislatures around the country. So while we are pushing for bills that would protect the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children, and while we work toward our ultimate goal of passing the Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, we must take time to halt these attacks state-by-state as well.

Given the localized nature of these bills – each in a single state – you probably are not aware of a lot of the work ParentalRights.org has been doing in recent months to protect families from these attacks. Here is a summary of what has been going on around the country, and what we as an organization have been doing to stop it.

Connecticut SB 169 – Senate Bill 169 would create a program to “screen children from birth through grade twelve for evidence of mental or emotional trauma.” As a knee-jerk reaction to the shooting at Newtown in December, this bill would violate the privacy of students and the right of parents to make health decisions for their child. ParentalRights.org opposes this bill, which unfortunately is still alive in the legislature. We will continue to monitor it and call for appropriate action as necessary.

Indiana SB 171 – Senate Bill 171 was a third party visitation bill. Under Indiana law, grandparents can sue for visitation under three instances, including the death of one of the parents. SB 171 proposed to add to this a fourth instance – any time a grandparent “had meaningful contact with the child” which the parents chose to terminate. This would force even fit parents and intact homes to defend against such suits, doing away with the presumption that fit parents act in the best interest of their children.

ParentalRights.org opposed SB 171, which was halted in committee. The Indiana legislature adjourned without taking up this bill.

Nevada AB 203 – Assembly Bill 203 in Nevada, like Indiana’s bill, would permit grandparents to sue fit parents and intact families for visitation rights to their grandchild. ParentalRights.org and our allies opposed this bill, which likewise died in committee.

New York AB 497 – Assembly Bill 497 and its companion bill, SB 3134, would permit health care practitioners to provide to minors, without parental consent, medical care intended to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. This specifically includes vaccines aimed to prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV). ParentalRights.org opposes this bill because it would encourage teens to exclude their parents from important health care decisions.

Washington HB 1506 – House Bill 1506 is a third party visitation bill that would allow any person to sue for visitation with a child, as long as the person filing suit has established a relationship with the child. The filer does not even have to be related to the child, and the law does not demand that the parents first be shown to be unfit. Even fit parents in intact families could have to defend against such suits in court.

ParentalRights.org opposed this bill, and it was not acted upon in regular session. Unfortunately, by resolution on May 13, it was “reintroduced and retained in present status” for the special legislative session. We will continue to monitor this bill and encourage action to oppose it as necessary.

Why Do We Oppose These Bills?

Ideally, families get along; parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents work together to raise strong and healthy kids. But that is not always the case.

Regardless of how healthy these relationships are, it falls to fit and loving parents to make decisions regarding the care, custody, and control of the child – including decisions regarding who has contact with that child.

So ParentalRights.org opposes any bill that would do away with the presumption that fit parents act in the best interests of their child, including any third party visitation statute that does not require a showing of parental unfitness (IN, NV, and WA bills above.) As long as a parent has been neither negligent nor abusive, the courts have no business second-guessing the parents’ decisions on who should spend time with their child.

We also oppose any bill that would remove parents from important health care decisions for their minor child (CT, NY bills above). Not only are parents financially and socially responsible for that young person, but they care more for that teen than any government bureaucrat will. When teens are facing major health issues, from vaccines to birth control to medical procedures, fit parents have a right to stand with them and help protect them from making dangerous, life-altering decisions. We cannot uphold the judicial presumption that fit parents act in the best interests of their child, while simultaneously courting a legislative presumption that teenagers somehow need to be “protected” from their parents when important medical decisions need to be made.

The Positive Side

While opposing bills like the above, of course, we have supported state bills that would establish legislative protection for parental rights. Both Virginia and Kansas passed parental rights statutes this session, and additional statutes have been introduced in Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Nevada. We are also working on lining up efforts for next year in those states whose legislative sessions have already adjourned. (To volunteer, email David@parentalrights.org.)

We are also supporting resolutions in Nebraska and Texas that would call for a national Parental Rights Amendment (PRA) and a resolution in Pennsylvania that urges the U.S. Senate to reject the Convention on the Rights of the Child. An additional pro-PRA resolution will be introduced in Michigan in the coming weeks.

As for the PRA itself, I will have an update for you on that in next week’s newsletter.

Action Items

As always, you can help support all of these efforts by telling your friends about the parental rights movement and asking them to join us in defending parental rights. Ask them to sign the petition today at parentalrights.org/petition.

You can also support all of these efforts with your donation to parentalrights.org. (We regret that donations cannot be tax deductible because of the political nature of our efforts.)

Thank you for standing with us to defend parental rights not only in Washington, D.C., but in the individual states as well.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

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Common Core: The 'State-led' Myth

Since its introduction in 2008, the Common Core State Standards Initiative, or “Common Core” (CCSSI) has been touted as a “voluntary, state led” initiative to adopt a common set of academic standards for all states in the country. As it turns out, the development of Common Core was not state-led, and participation, while technically voluntary, was very strongly coerced.

Our research into the standards themselves is ongoing, but frankly that is a secondary concern. ParentalRights.org stands opposed to the process by which Common Core has come to be. Its creation and administration have violated constitutional principles and rob parents of the right to oversee the education of their children.

Private Roots

In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli Broad Foundation pledged $60 million dollars into a campaign to infuse education into the 2008 political raceⁱ. In May, 2008, the Gates Foundation awarded a $2.2 million grant to the Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policyⁱⁱ which, one month later, hosted a symposium alongside the National Governors Association (NGA) on education strategies.

Later the same year, NGA and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) began accepting federal grants with which to launch Common Core. In December, 2008, NGA, CCSSO and Achieve – their contractor in Washington, D.C. – laid out a vision for Common Core standards in a document called Benchmarking for Success. This report, like so much of the process leading to it, was funded by the Gates Foundationⁱⁱⁱ, and it was given to the Obama administration as part of his transition to the White House.

According to a 2012 white paper from the Pioneer Institute and the American Principles Project (upon which this article is based), “Through 2008, the Common Core Initiative was a plan of private groups being implemented through trade associations, albeit trade associations that have ‘official’-sounding names. Since 2007, NGA, CCSSO, and Achieve accepted more than $27 million from the Gates Foundation alone to advance the Standards and the connected data-collection and assessments.”^iv

To this day, “the Standards are owned and copyrighted by nongovernmental entities unaccountable to parents and students in the individual states.”^v

Federal Coercion

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (or “Stimulus Bill”) was enacted on February 17, 2009, and provided the next key component in the drive toward Common Core. Through this bill Congress earmarked $4.35 billion for states that make “significant progress” toward four education-reform objectives.

One week after the bill was passed, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan rolled out the federal “Race to the Top” program through the Department of Education (DOE). In a C-SPAN interview, Secretary Duncan explained, “We want to get into this game…. There are great outside partners – Achieve, the Gates Foundation, others – who are providing great leadership…. I want to be the one to help it come to fruition.”^vi

From there, the timing was telling^vii:

In March, 2009, the DOE announced that “Race to the Top” funding would be rewarded through two rounds of competitive grants.

On June 1, NGA and CCSSO officially launched their Common Core Standards Initiative.

“Race to the Top” required states to commit to a common set of K-12 standards by August 2, 2009 – at which time the newly-launched “Common Core” was the only such effort in existence. States that did not commit to the program stood no chance of winning any of the grant money.

Phase I applications were invited in November, 2009, with a due date of January 19, 2010. “[A]pplicant states were required to demonstrate their commitment to Common Core without having seen even a draft of the standards.”

On February 22, President Obama in a speech revealed his intent to tie all Title I funding to this same Common Core commitment, essentially cutting off nearly all federal education funding to states that opt out. A March, 2010, DOE report stated that this cut off would occur by 2015.

In March of 2010, two months after applications had been received committing states to the standards, the first draft of Common Core was finally released by NGA and CCSSO.

Phase 2 applications were due June 1 of 2010, and the final draft of Common Core was not released until the following day. Applicants of both phases committed to the standards without even knowing what they would be.

What is more, the Race to the Top application stipulates that states must adopt and implement Common Core word for word. They can add to it only provided the additions do not amount to more than 15% of the material taught, but they cannot take away from it by any means.

Conclusion

In short, far from being state-led, Common Core was developed in such a way as to keep the states completely in the dark. It was created and is still owned and copyrighted by private organizations with no accountability to the parents or students of any state. Neither are they accountable to the states themselves. The federal government used tax-payer monies to coerce the states into adopting the standards sight-unseen, contrary to the interests of the tax-payers.

While proponents advertised Common Core as a “voluntary, state-led” initiative, the states have been following blindly from the start. Not one citizen-elected legislative body has had any input into the standards or the system of development by which those standards came to be.

What Is To Be Done?

This initiative clearly violates the right of parents to direct the education of their children. As the Pioneer Institute’s report points out, “If the states no longer have control over education, neither can the parents in those states.” “The best way to stop this scheme,” the paper also asserts, “is for the individual states to refuse to participate.”

We will continue to push forward, first with our efforts to pass the Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment will defend the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children.

We will also continue to shine light on this devious power grab. The more who know what is going on, the stronger the voice that will rise up to oppose it.

And we will continue to work with volunteers, organizations, and state lawmakers to pass statutes that would protect the rights of parents in the individual states. This will include supporting legislation that would roll back participation in Common Core, and resisting legislation that would formalize it, in any given state.

We trust you will stand with us in these efforts as they arise. Could you also make a generous donation today to help us continue our mission of protecting children by empowering parents, not only with the Parental Rights Amendment, but also with knowledge about threats like the Common Core?

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

NOTES:

i. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2007/04/Strong-American-Schools-Campaign-Launches-to-Promote-Education-Reform-in-2008-Presidential-Election
ii. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2008/05/OPP50361
iii. http://achieve.org/files/BenchmarkingforSuccess.pdf (accessed 4/22/2013), p. 2
iv. http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/controlling-education-from-the-top/ (accessed 4/22/2013), p.4
v. Ibid, p. 2
vi. http://www.c-span.org/Events/Education-Sec-Arne-Duncan-interviewed-by-Libby-Quaid-AP-and-Michele-McNeil-Education-Week/12961/ (accessed 4/22/2013)
vii. http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/controlling-education-from-the-top/, pp. 4-8

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Second Opinion? We're Taking Your Child

One would think having the approval of a doctor and even clearance from the local police would be enough to protect a parent from having their baby taken away over cries of “medical neglect.” In this case, one would be wrong.

Anna and Alex Nikolayev of Sacramento lost custody of their 5-month-old son last week when they decided to seek a second opinion before having the baby undergo heart surgery. Though a second doctor found it safe to release the boy into their custody, and though an investigating officer also cleared the family to go home, the child was taken the next day.

Timeline of Events

Little Sammy has had a heart murmur since birth, which the parents have been closely monitoring along with a doctor at Sutter Memorial Hospital. So when Sammy developed flu-like symptoms a couple of weeks ago, his parents took him to Sutter again as a precaution. During his stay, a couple of incidents occurred that concerned the parents (such as administrating an anti-biotic to fight his virus). So when Sammy was put in the pediatric intensive care and talk turned to heart surgery, the parents wanted a second opinion.

Unable to secure release from the doctors at Sutter Memorial, the parents took Sammy from the hospital anyway – prompting an automatic call to Child Protective Services and the Sacramento Police – and drove straight to neighboring Kaiser-Permanente Hospital.

Doctors there determined that Sammy was healthy enough to go home with his parents. The doctor noted in his report that he saw no cause for concern in leaving Sammy in Anna and Alex’s care. (Corrective heart surgery is in Sammy’s future; the parents do not dispute this fact.)

Police met the family at Kaiser, checked out the smiling baby, read the doctor’s report, and agreed that Sammy was in no danger. The Nikolayev family was free to go.

That was April 23, 2013. The following day, a CPS worker and Sacramento Police arrived at the family’s home and removed the baby, carrying him back to Sutter Memorial, where he was held in “protective custody.” Though the parents got to visit Sammy to feed him three times a day for one supervised hour, they had to wait until Monday for a hearing.

By then, coverage had gone international, with media outlets in Germany and in the family’s native Russia paying close attention. Ominously, local ABC station KXTV reports, “CPS said they were overwhelmed with the amount of attention by the media into the case, and could therefore take longer than usual to render a decision on Sammy's fate.” (emphasis added)

How Would the PRA Help?

Traditionally, the Supreme Court has recognized the “fundamental liberty interest of natural parents in the care, custody, and management of their child,” found in the Fourteenth Amendment’s “Due Process” clause. Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745 (1982) This protection, however, has been lost on Sacramento CPS. It is also being weakened through judicial erosion in the courts.

Passage of the Parental Rights Amendment will provide parents an explicit constitutional protection; otherwise, they’ll have to rely on the courts, hoping they will continue to interpret the Fourteenth Amendment as they traditionally have (but increasingly no longer do). And the PRA will allow organizations like CPS to know exactly what the rules are that they must follow.

“The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their child is a fundamental right. Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.”

These two sentences would make clear that CPS cannot take a child away unless it is prepared to prove that the child was in danger caused by abuse or neglect. In this case, it would increase the chances that common sense would prevail and baby Sammy would have gotten to stay home safe and sound with his mom and dad.

Action Items

Yesterday the county and the family's lawyers reached an agreement to return Sammy to his parents' care, but with stipulations limiting their choices in medical treatment. (See video here.) CPS will continue to be a part of Sammy's life at least until the next hearing, set for May 28. While we rejoice in the reunification of this family, we grieve over the unnecessary loss of liberty this couple has suffered for no reason. We must make sure such abuses do not continue unchecked. Here is how you can help:

1. Share this email and the story of Sammy with everyone you know. Encourage them to support the Parental Rights Amendment and to sign on here.

2. Donate to support ParentalRights.org as we fight to protect the rights of parents like Anna and Alex. Help us make stories like Sammy’s a thing of the past.

3. Stay vigilant. Word is that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be back in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this month. Watch for alerts letting you know when and how to focus your energies on stopping that dangerous treaty. Click here for the current appeal to call your senators today.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research


P.S. – Due to the timely nature of this breaking news story, the Common Core article scheduled for today will be sent on Thursday of this week.

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UN Disabilities Treaty on the Move
Contact Members of U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee!

Dear Champion of Parental Rights,

We are hearing from multiple sources that the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee is gearing up to hold hearings on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The plan is to hold the hearings sometime next month.

The Senate needs to hear from you immediately that this already defeated UN treaty must not be ratified by the U.S. Senate. The United States Senate must not surrender our domestic sovereignty and the care of children with disabilities to unelected, unaccountable UN bureaucrats. Parents know best how to care for their children with disabilities. U.S. law is the gold standard for ensuring that people with disabilities are protected and able to participate in all areas of U.S. society.

The U.S. Senate will be in recess next week, which means that your senators are back in your state meeting with constituents. Please do three things:

1. Call and email your two U.S. senators and urge them to oppose the UN CRPD. The Capitol Hill Switchboard is 202-224-3121, and you can use this link to email your senators.
2. Find out if there is a constituent meeting in your area, or see if you can visit your U.S. senators while they are on recess. You can visit our States Page, click on your state, and then click on your senators to find their personal webpage.
3. Please forward this email to your friends and family, and educate them about the dangers that this UN treaty poses to parental rights, homeschool freedom, and our nation’s sovereignty.

Your message to your senators can be as simple as the following:

“I urge you to oppose the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This treaty surrenders U.S. sovereignty to unelected UN bureaucrats and will threaten parental care of children with disabilities. Our nation already has laws to protect Americans with disabilities. This treaty is unnecessary and will hurt families by giving bureaucrats the power to decide what is in the best interests of a child with disabilities, not the child’s parents.”

To find out more about the CRPD please click here. To read the text of the CRPD please click here.

Thank you for joining with us in this battle to protect our children and our children’s future. You defeated this treaty last year. Standing together, we can defeat this treaty once again.

For liberty,

Michael P. Farris, J.D., LL.M.
President, ParentalRights.org

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Romeikes, Farris in Court Today

Today the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Romeike v. Holder. While this is an asylum case precipitated by a German law, its outcome could greatly impact American parental rights law. ParentalRights.org President Michael Farris is representing the family in court.

Farris shared on his Facebook page last week, “The more I prepare, the more I am convinced of the rightness of this case.”

At issue is whether or not a parent has a prior right to direct the education of his or her child – whether a parent’s human rights include the right simply to decide where their child will attend school, and what kind of education the child will receive.

The Romeikes fled Germany in order to home school their children in accordance with their deeply held religious beliefs. Under German law, all children must attend state-funded schools and learn what the government wants them to learn. So the family made a legal visit to Tennessee (visas, passports, etc.) and filed for asylum while they were there.

The amnesty court granted their petition, finding that Germany’s law violates the family’s prior right to determine the kind of education their children would receive. But the Administration appealed through the office of Attorney General Eric Holder. Today is the day that appeal is to be heard.

Action Items

If you have friends or family who have not yet signed the petition to support the Parental Rights Amendment, urge them to visit parentalrights.org/petition and sign up today.

Also, please donate to support this important cause. You can donate to ParentalRights.org here, or you can give directly to support the Romeike case through HSLDA’s Freedom Fund here.

We know your thoughts and hearts are with us as we await the outcome of today’s parental rights case. We will let you know how it turns out as soon as we hear. Thank you for standing with us to protect parental rights!

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research


P.S. – Three weeks ago I mentioned that we would be contacting the Senate soon to remind them that they work for us. That effort was postponed due to information from our Capitol Hill connections that the timing was not right. We try to seek the most effective moments so that we are not wasteful of our greatest resource as an organization – your time and efforts.

We will not drop the ball on preventing ratification of any United Nations treaty that would threaten your parental rights, so watch for that blitz to come up at a later time.

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Common Core Correction

On Friday we sent an email about Common Core which was poorly worded. I wrote, “ParentalRights.org is still researching the details of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), but there is no question that we oppose it.” This gave some readers the impression that we made a half-baked decision to oppose something we do not yet understand.

It would have been more accurate to say, “ParentalRights.org is still researching the details of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), but there is no question that we oppose the de facto takeover of education by the federal government and unaccountable private organizations.” Our website now reflects this change.

To be clear, there is a lot to be researched about Common Core. We are still examining, for instance, the specific academic standards that it would set.

However, there are also details about Common Core which we have fully researched, and it is these areas that have given rise to our opposition.

We are just putting the finishing touches on an article outlining how Common Core came to be and why we oppose that process. It is fully researched and referenced, and would be in your inbox tomorrow but for the Romeike case which starts this week. Instead, you can look for the Common Core article on April 30. Again, though, the research for that article is complete.

Click here for a brief analysis of Common Core from our friends at Home School Legal Defense Association.

We do not currently oppose Common Core based on the standards themselves (and if at some point we do, it will be after thorough research and consultation with education experts). Rather, our concerns have arisen from areas that have already been fully researched. I apologize for my poor choice of words that strongly suggested otherwise.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

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Call Today to Defund Common Core

ParentalRights.org is still researching the details of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), but there is no question that we oppose it. By shifting the power to set school standards and curricula away from the states, CCSSI would rob parents of the right to hold accountable those planning the education of their children in public schools. Today, you can take action to halt this dangerous program.

Senator Chuck Grassley (Iowa) understands the problems with Common Core and is circulating a letter to stop federal funding of the program for the coming year. He is currently inviting other senators to sign on to the letter as well. (Read the full letter here.)

Please call your two U.S. Senators and urge them to sign Senator Grassley’s letter to end federal funding of the Common Core. You can reach your senators through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, or you can find their phone numbers and email addresses on this page.

Your message can be as simple as, “Please sign onto Senator Grassley’s letter urging Congress to defund the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The federal government should not be using tax-payer dollars to pressure states into adopting education goals and curriculum, which should be decided by local parents, teachers, and schools.”

Background

Though advertised as state-led and voluntary, Common Core was introduced with tremendous pressure from the U.S. Department of Education: States must adopt the standards to have any chance at federal education grants through the “Race to the Top” program. Senator Grassley’s letter suggests that he recognizes these tactics as a means for the federal government to control standards and tests without directly setting those standards themselves. (Federal tax dollars are also granted to the companies that have created the standards and are preparing the tests.)

If the language proposed by Grassley’s letter is included in the next educational funding bill, it will clearly prohibit the Department of Education from making any of its funding to states dependent on a state’s adherence to Common Core. It will also make it clearly illegal for the Department to send funds to the companies pushing the Common Core standards, tests, and curricula.

Republicans and Democrats should all support this letter. The Common Core push was an underhanded move by the Department of Education to take over education in America. Members of both parties need to oppose this kind of power grab and go on record calling for its defunding.

Thank you for taking the time to make your opinion heard on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research

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