You’ve probably figured out by now that my “day job” is as a citizen activist. I say “job,” but the truth is, I’m not paid a dime. I do what I do simply because it is the right thing to do. Accidental activist really. I never found much time for politics until garbage education policies and legislation impacted my family. Even as a former high school teacher, I wasn’t fully aware of the depth of the Marxist agenda in public education—until I was. Once I knew what I knew, I couldn’t be silent and let other parents and families be impacted by what both Republicans and Democrats are doing not just in Washington state but across the entire country.
Washington state runs on a biennium legislative model. Odd years we have a long legislative session and even years are short sessions. At the time I started writing this blog post, since pre-filing began back on December 2, 274 pieces of legislation have been filed. More bills have dropped in the past few days. Based on the last long session, we could see about another 1200 more bills to be filed during the 2025 session. There are a few good bills pre-filed by Republicans that will never see the light of day, sadly. And there are plenty of trash pieces of legislation filed by both Democrats and Republicans. In fact, there are a few bills pre-filed by Republicans that railroad parental rights—sponsored by the same Republicans who say they support I-2081, the parents’ bill of rights. These same Republicans have also voted for other legislation that has completely destroyed parental rights in WA.
What I’m trying to say is: we are in big trouble here in WA state.
Today, I want to talk more in depth about key concerns surrounding Mastery Based Learning. Right before the holidays, December 13 to be exact, a meeting was held for the Early Learning & K-12 Committee. If you follow the organization I work with, Conservative Ladies of Washington, you may have seen several of our posts including a video outlining the key concerns for parents and citizens.
The hearing was a working meeting of sorts which included an update from the WA State Board of Education (SBE) regarding Mastery Based Learning (MBL) also referred to as Competency Based Learning (CBL). The names are interchangeable. When you hear “CBL,” it means MBL. When you hear MBL, it means CBL. This is all by design. Use interchangeable names and terms in order to confuse and gaslight citizens and parents.
Most of our take-aways from the meeting are quite straight forward. First, Mastery Based Learning is happening. It’s clearly a priority with several politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, and likely the most important item on the State Board of Education’s 2025 Legislative Priorities list. Like so much of the legislation citizens can expect this session, there is little we can do to stop what is coming, but we can certainly make sure that the legislators and senators of our state know that Mastery Based Learning is not the will of the people. During the 2023-2024 session, Lisa Wellman, Chair of the committee, sponsored SB 6264 “supporting the implementation of competency-based learning.” Her bill was one of 21 pieces of legislation—including three separate bills pertaining to the state budget from 2021-2025—that include elements in order to ensure that Mastery Based Learning had lift-off in WA state. In 2019, the legislature passed SB 1599 which established the state work group for Mastery Based Learning and led to the MBL Collaborative. As of December 12, 2023, there were 47 schools in WA participating in this experiment spanning 28 school districts statewide. https://sbe.wa.gov/news/2023/mastery-based-learning-grows-state-funded-support That number continues to grow and with the expected legislation coming this session to make MBL the law of the land in our state, you can expect this nonsense at your child’s school very soon.
One of the steps toward making MBL the new bandwagon of public education is changing options for meeting graduation requirements. You may have noticed a change in your school district’s options for meeting graduation requirements. Students no longer have to meet the actual state requirements to graduate. Legislation has been passed that allows for pathways and waivers to help students across the finish line. I have attended many school board meetings across my county over the past almost four years. Every April the district must give a report on the number of students who are not on par to graduate. Sometimes, each district has 100 students on those lists. Magically, at the May meetings all of those students are graduating–not because they met the state requirements but because they’ve been granted a waiver or given a pathway to complete instead. They are willfully and deliberately graduating students who are illiterate here in WA and all over the nation—they care about graduation numbers, not if your child can read or succeed post high school.
The second point to note, it that it was made painfully clear in the meeting that the state knows best for your children–even when they don’t. Both the State Board of Education and members of the Early Learning & K-12 Education committee have made their feelings quite well known about how parents are nothing more than a nuisance in their plan to bring the WA public education system to fruition in the image that they and the teachers unions have for our children. Chairwoman Lisa Wellman makes no effort to hide her feelings about parents. She’s been caught on a hot mic many times during hearings telling the citizens of Washington exactly how she feels about us. For that reason alone, we must exercise our First Amendment right to petition our government. We may not be able to stop them, but we can make the will of the people known.
MBL/CBL exhibits a deliberate lack of parental involvement. Every single goal is through the lens of educators, not parents, or focusing on the academic excellence of our children. MBL makes it clear that the government believes they know best for YOUR children. It’s about feelings and acceptance and MBL policy and programs are wrought with DEI, CRT, and LGBTQ language.
One moment I’d like to highlight from the meeting was when one senator asked a question about students who are “incarcerated in systems of care.” My mind immediately went to SB 5007 (addressing chronic student absenteeism) pre-filed just a few days ago. The bill will give license to schools to turn your child over to the juvenile justice system and is sponsored by Sen. John Braun(R). He dropped this legislation last session too, and our team made it very clear to him why it flies in the face of parental rights and gives more power to the government over our children. We should all be asking: Do our politicians actually think the juvenile justice system is a "system of care?" Better than their loving families? And why aren’t politicians addressing the root cause of absenteeism: restorative justice, DEI, CRT, the LGBTQ agenda?
Third, you should plan for more government. In several of the models and examples shared by the SBE during the meeting, they made it clear that more “Offices of…” would need to be created to oversee several different elements of MBL/CBL from grants to policies and procedures, legislation, and implementation. Make no mistake, MBL is big money. More government means more money which means more taxes for the people. With the looming $10-12 billion deficit projected for our state, you can bet that instead of trimming the pork, putting pet projects on hold, or cutting spending like we must do to our own household budgets, the legislature will tax us until they can’t tax us anymore.
Fourth, the state board of education has contracted with at least two out of state nonprofits to facilitate Mastery Based Learning in WA. Great Schools Partnership is based in Maine. According to their website, Great Schools Partnership uses “global best practices” to [design and implement] an equitable system of education…” They use their global best practices to “help educators address inequity and improved learning for all students.” Instead of directly addressing plummeting scores in reading, math, and science, they are focused on a global worldview. This non-profit defines education inequity as: “ensuring just outcomes for each student, raising marginalized voices, and challenging the imbalance of power and privilege.” Their focus isn’t academics, it’s DEI.
Remember, that DEI focuses on the color of a child’s skin and teaches them that it is that factor and that factor alone that determines their value, their privilege, and the outcomes of their lives. Great Schools Partnership is just another group profiting off of state sponsored racism. They just package it differently and use words like “mastery based” and “competency based” to confuse parents and make you think they are actually concerned about academic excellence. If you listen to the committee meeting (link below) from December 13, you will hear the SBE presenters say how students feel a sense of belonging, that the outcome—the overall goal—is agency over oneself, and they infuse joy into the classroom. “Mastery” in competency based learning is completely subjective which is clearly outlined in the SBE’s crediting guidelines.
The Aurora Institute located in Washington, DC contracts with the WA State Board of Education to evaluate Mastery Based Learning in WA state. They are lobbyists more than education professionals who care about the academic excellence and success of WA state students. The data they collect through their analysis drives policies and legislation. Their reports are more of a “look at me, this is why we should all be doing this” report—the global worldview—rather than best practices to improve academic excellence for our students. They are focused on feelings and data, not a student’s need for or desire to be academically prepared for life post high school. According to a statement about “Our Influence,” direct from the Aurora Institute website:
Aurora Institute is a data mining and lobbying entity influencing policy and lawmakers. They don’t even try to hide it.
So, what now?What can I do as a citizen of WA state? We know MBL is going to be the law of the land for our state.
Attend your local school board meetings. Ask questions and make public comment about mastery/competency based learning.
Make public record requests to find out how many students have been given waivers and pathways since the MBL laws started passing in 2019.
Research Mastery Based/Competency Based Learning. Visit the WA State Board of Education website. Click on every hyperlink, read every document.
Listen in on state education committee hearings and look at all the documents provided for the meetings. You can listen in from the comfort of your own home—in your PJs even!
Contact every single one of your Republican representatives—House and Senate—and make sure they know the truth about MBL/CBL and encourage them to vote no on every single piece of legislation tied to its funding and implementation. Here is the link to the December 13 meeting. It’s worth the time to just turn it on and listen in. Just click on “View Video.” https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeeschedules#/Senate/12228/12-12-2024/12-14-2024/Schedule///Bill/
