Yesterday we shared with you that education activist and author Kris L. Nielsen will serve as the first member of the five-person judging panel that will assisting us with our project-based, citizen-led initiative, "COUNTERACT [false] ACCOUNTABILITY." We also shared a powerful meme with a damning quote from Arne Duncan. It's a start on providing you with tools to wake people up on how the term "accountability" is being leveraged by so-called education reformers against students who don't fit the desired mold--as well as to generate buzz around the initiative and get others thinking about how the could make a difference.

Today, with just four more days until the initiative's official launch and the release of full details, we're ready to reveal the identity of the second of the the judges on our remarkable judges' panel. We also have another potent meme to pass forward.

So, let's get to it, then!

Mystery Judge #2 is...Lynne M. Taylor!

You may know Lynne better as the Common Core Diva, the title of the blog where she has been almost perpetually at work since 2014, publicly exposing the plans, people, and policies that are corrupting and undermining our education system. The work she's done there has helped open the eyes of fellow citizens and give them many of the tools they need to push back. Lynne formally entered the education battle after recognizing years ago, now, that no child--whether enrolled in a public, private, or home-based school--was meant to escape a deceptive and damaging program of top-down education reforms being implemented across the U.S.

Beginning in 2000, Lynne's profile began to grow as an invited speaker and radio guest nationwide. She has likewise been invited to share the depth and breadth of her insights in relationship to education matters on a number of national conference calls aimed at informing and organizing others. In addition to her blog, Lynne is also the published author of a variety of newspaper and magazine articles. She even has a book under her belt! 

A private educator in North Carolina for 23 years, and an education mentor, Lynne received a 2011 Educator of Distinction Award from the National Society of High School Scholars. Her reputation as an activist committed to exposing the false agendas of so-called education reformers is legendary, as is her commitment to preventing the ensnarement of students, parents, teachers, and the citizenry more broadly.

We could not be more delighted to have Lynne's participation in what we know will be an amazing opportunity for citizens to make a creative and lasting imact--in their communities and beyond--in stopping the crooked word games that surround the term "accountability."

Which brings us to our meme for the day...

One of the things Lynne has worked assiduously to fight is the longterm alignment of the nation to the workforce development model of education, which is now, after decades of policy implementation, almost fully upon us. Those of you who have watched the rise in the career-tracking of children know exactly what we're talking about. We've likewise written about it here and here, among other places on our blog. We share with Lynne a dogged determination to expose the ways in which Big Business and Big Government are partnering to turn children into little more than interchangeable widgets in a national workforce development scheme.

Today's meme thus quotes a man whose entire professional career has been dedicated to bringing that workforce vision to reality and who, as such, has been undermining the education, individuality, and aspiriations of children since at least the early 1990s. We're talking about Marc Tucker, founder of the National Center on Education and the Economy.

The quote in the meme is taken from a lengthy 1992 letter he wrote to Hillary Clinton on the night her husband was elected to his first presidential term, laying out a vision for the marriage of education and labor in a "national human resources development" scheme. Indeed, several landmark pieces of legislation, matching the vision described in Tucker's "Dear Hillary" letter, were passed and signed into law during Clinton's two terms in office--Goals 2000, The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994, and more. Together, these policies have helped to accomplish the participation of states and local school districts in what Tucker envisions as a national (note that he clarifies "not federal") workforce development pipeline.

Many of you know that the impetus for this whole initiative was the deceptive use of language. So, it shouldn't be any surprise that Tucker is a master at it. In fact, he has been one of the most public faces on the frontlines of false reform, using words like "skills," "opportunities," and--surprise!--"accountability" to hoodwink targeted audiences from academia to politics to business. 

We'll be tweeting this meme out, with a link pointing back to this post, as well as Facebooking it over the next 24 hours. We'd appreciate your assistance in re-tweeting or -posting our messages. The more we can get people interested in the imminent launch of "COUNTERACT [false] ACCOUNTABILTY" and the possibility of taking the opportunity to join with us in shining a light on the truth, the better.

More coming tomorrow...

STAY TUNED!