Understanding TASA's Vision

How it all Began

This is four years of research and understanding.

The progression of TASA's vision condensed into one blog. Follow the links with each section to read the actual documents that led me to this understanding. In 2005, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation put out this 23-page white paper on High-Performing School Districts, also known as Common Core.

Next, Delphi-driven (another term for group think) school boards in their quest for consensus mirrored Gates white paper and created the Texas High Performance Schools Consortium so we could be "future-ready".

Next, the Consortium appointed nine superintendents from influential districts, who signed on and convinced other districts to join. To learn more about the history of the Consortium and its mission visit their web site. The Consortium has grown to 22 school districts, they can be viewed here.

HPISD superintendent Dr. Dawson Orr signed the North Texas Regional Consortium Document, stating that "[the undersigned] believe in the tenets of Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas"

In May 2008, TASA (a taxpayer-funded lobbying group) created a 48-page document outlining this vision to which districts throughout the state are aligning and conforming.

This means districts are no longer INDEPENDENT. Once a district is part of a consortium governed by TASA, the interests of the local community and students are superseded by the desires of the Consortium. All students, knowing or not, are members of the Consortium as long as they belong to a signatory district.

It is time for all parents to begin asking questions in order to better understand how this outside influence impacts your children’s education.

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Meg Bakich for HPISD Trustee