The National Science Foundation (NSF) came under scrutiny years ago for causing damage to math education in the United States. Professor David Klein, a Mathematician from California State University, wrote a letter to then Representative Boehlert and Members of the House Science Committee, exposing the damaging effects in math education that came from the National Science Foundation.
In his letter from 2004, Professor Klein said,
“No single institution in the United States has caused more damage to the mathematical education of children than the National Science Foundation through its EHR division. In saying this I want to make it clear that I am not criticizing the NSF’s admirable and important role in supporting fundamental scientific research. I am criticizing only the Education and Human Resources division of the NSF. This is the division within the NSF that funds K-12 education projects. It is responsible for systematically promoting the worst math education fads of the past decade, and it continues to cause damage in schools. I have witnessed the crippling of education caused by the NSF’s promotion of poor math textbooks in schools across the country. In many cases, NSF funds were used to develop these defective programs.“
The NSF continues to waste taxpayer money with the grants they are providing. According to this article by blogger Steve McDonald, “..the National ‘Science’ Foundation has given the University of New Hampshire a million dollars ($999,752) to, “explore strategies for preventing “bias incidents” perpetrated against minorities in science,…(and create a) “bias awareness guide and intervention tool.”
It is part of a three million dollar disbursement by the NSF to fight microaggressions in STEM fields…”
It appears as if a stern warning from a university mathematics professor did nothing to curb the foolish and wasteful grants from the NSF.
The NSF is funded by the federal government which means we, the taxpayers, fund foolish and wasteful projects that do nothing to improve the quality of math or science education for children in public schools.
Instead of going back and highlighting the poor quality of the Next Generation Science Standards and then working to improve them, the NSF is going to use our money to look for bias incidents. Is this really happening?
I can make this easy. Involved parents will remove their children from public schools that use the dumbed down Next Generation Science Standards or Common Core Standards. Those parents will make sure their kids have an opportunity to qualify for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) programs. Their children will either be home-schooled or attend an elite private school. They will make sure their kids have access to a quality curriculum that doesn’t confuse children in math, and includes science standards that prepare children for the medical field.
The bias comes from education reformers who continue to push education reforms on public schools while they send their precious children to elite private schools that offer the quality that all children deserve. UNH will look at public schools for biases and ignore the bigotry of low expectations that come from bureaucrats who insist on keeping the status quo in public education.
Parents, who have no idea, will think that funding public education is the key to a quality education for children. They will not realize that so much of our money is wasted on grant funding that never improves the quality of education for their children.
We see it in New Hampshire right now. Some member of the Board of Education continue to fight Commissioner Frank Edelblut’s attempt to improve the quality of the academic standards. They want to keep the dumbed down Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards in place. They ignore the many parents and teachers who’ve said that they want better standards for their children. They continue to fight the Commissioner reviewing the standards that are driving parents to pull their kids out of the public school system.
I continue to ask, what are they afraid of? Literacy?
UNH should look no further than the New Hampshire State Board of Education Members that have voted against Commissioner Edelbut’s goal of reviewing and improving academic standards in New Hampshire.
Keep writing the New Hampshire Board of Education and tell them we expect better:
ACBOE@comcast.net
waduncansboe@gmail.com
kcassady@allstaffcorp.com
ggroleau@nhbb.com
chags@comcast.net
hhonorow@barrylawoffice.com
annlanenhsboe@gmail.com
Ann Marie Banfield currently volunteers as the Education Liaison for Cornerstone Action in New Hampshire. She has been researching education reform for over a decade and actively supports parental rights, literacy and academic excellence in k-12 schools. You can contact her at: abanfield@nhcornerstone.org
