THE OTHER SIDE ON COMMON CORE
Thanks to Ms. Moore for her 45 year
teaching career.
But there is so much more to be said
about still another federal take-over.
Really, how much is enough?
First, the Automobile industry; then student loans; then the banking
industry (Dodd/Frank); Then health care; and now an attempt at nationalized
education. Literally, the minds of
our children and grandchildren.
Unfortunately, 45 states have
initially embraced the Common Core standards, having been bribed (race to the
top promised grants) and threatened (removal of Title I funding for poorer
students). But since the full
effects of the take-over have become clearer, 16 states have bills in their
legislature (two in S.C. S300 and H3943).
And there are many civic groups across the nation raising their voices
against the program. And well they should.
The concept of Nationalized education
is not new. Wilson, Roosevelt,
Clinton have all had similar designs.
Obama’s overreach has gone further than any other because his department
of education was given over $4bn to spend from the Stimulus Bill. (Shovel ready???) But this recent effort has a great many
negatives.
The
standards were developed in secret by a Washington trade group (National
Governors’ Ass’n.) and a lobbying group (Council of Chief State School
Officers) together with a Data Specialty Company they hired (Achieve, Inc.).
Not a class room teacher among them.
The 50 state school boards were asked to compete for grants and sign up
for Common Core in 2009, even before the standards were written. Enticed by the much needed money
dangled, and with the promise of waivers on progress required under “No Child
Left Behind” 45 states signed up.
Only 7 got grants. All got
waivers. Even the most biased
observer must agree that this process was deeply flawed in many ways. Notice, no legislatures involved. And no cost analysis made
The curricula developed to meet the
standards are seriously flawed:
-The
math curriculum moves addition and subtraction forward to the fourth grade and
division forward to the 6th grade. Algebra is moved forward to the 9th grade. And Geometry is to be taught through a
new and untested method unknown to the current teaching staffs. James Milgram (Stanford Professor)
refused to certify the math curriculum stating it would “place American
students at least 2 years behind their peers in other high performing
countries”.
-The
English Language Arts curriculum calls for overly simple reading challenges at
all grade levels, eliminating classics and substituting pedestrian materials
from technical manuals, menus, pop music, etc. Professor Sandra Stotsky refused to certify the curriculum
stating “the reading deemed sufficient for High School graduation will be at
about a 7th grade level.
-And
the material substituted for the classics will put highly political and social
justice messages into a propaganda pipeline aimed directly at the
children. A few of the mentioned
items in the curriculum were: Selected executive orders; EPA rulings on carbon
emissions; Why Obamacare is great, etc.
Further,
personal and family Data collected
from students will cover periods from Pre-K to 20yrs and work experience. 3000 data points will be collected and
stored to be shared with entities both inside and outside government. Student/parent privacy rights under
F.E.R.P.A. were eliminated by the U.S. Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan) and
parental permission is no longer needed for release to third parties. I don’t
have to spell out what so much intrusion by a powerful central government can
lead to.
Moreover,
the cost to roll out this take-over was never considered until two years into
the roll-out and then only by non-government entities. Heritage Foundation estimates a total
national cost of $16bn over 7 years.
The S.C. estimate is nearly $300m over the first full 5 years. ALL UNFUNDED MANDATES.
Those are only a few of the soft
points on Common Core. Limited
space of an editor letter prevents me from listing more.
The various comments by Ms. Moore
regarding tea partyers and Dr. Zais were unworthy of a person with her background. In particular, Dr Zais declined
stimulus money because the funding was front-ended only and would have left the
state with a very heavy financial hangover to fund once the Fed $ ran out. Good judgment exercised by a
responsible executive. The snide tea Party comments don’t deserve an answer.
Roger O’Sullivan, Chairman
Greater Charleston Parents Interested
in Education
It's good to prevent all these government takeovers: The auto industry, saved by govt loans and saved lots of jobs (isn't the Rep Party for jobs?); student loans, aren't student loans from banks backed by the fed govt? (and the Republicans have voted against lowering the rates; part of their anti-intellectual campaign); Dodd-Frank to try to rein in the banks, even though it's a weak bill; (remember those guys on Wall Street who crashed the economy, and they all got richer at the expense of the 99%, and nobody went to jail, and they keep gambling with OUR money and losing like the $8billion Citibank London Whale loss?), and health care, which is modeled after GOP Presidential candidate MittCare in Massachusetts and involves free market insurance exchanges (capitalism) and is not run by the government.
ReplyDeleteYep, those all all take-overs.
Anyway, South Carolina deserves its own educational curriculum because people in SC are different, not like the rest of the USA (except for the New Confederate States, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, etc.)
No social justice messages allowed! The Tea Party/Religious Right are against social justice for minorities and homosexuals. No Medicaid, no unemployment insurance, no food stamps for "those people" (even though about 61% of Medicaid recipients are white; and most are children and old people) since they are all just moochers who don't want to work, even though the Wall Street banksters crashed the economy and killed jobs, and US corporations are making record profits by shipping jobs overseas and aren't hiring anybody with the trillions of dollars in cash they are sitting on, and the Republican Party refuses to govern, preferring to say NO anytime Mr. Obama opens his mouth; and companies like Wal-Mart and McDonalds don't pay living wages and health benefits so the rest of us pay for their employees' food stamps and Medicaid, which we shouldn't be supplying "those people" anyway because they should just get a better job or two jobs
OK so we don't teach social justice. What do we teach our different SC kids?:
The world is only 9000 years old
Evolution and climate change are "lies from the pit of hell", to quote a Texas Republican congressman
Homosexuals are an abomination
Women's bodies can reject pregnancy after getting raped, to quote another Republican Congressman
If a raped woman gets pregnant, it is a gift from God, a quote from a Republican Congressman
Hurricane Irene was sent by God to punish sinners in the Northeast, a quote from GOP Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann
The Civil War was NOT about slavery, but states' rights
As to Heritage Foundation's estimate of the $16BB cost; you can't really rely on those people to create good numbers (even though it is now run by SC's own Jim DeMint). They are the outfit that said the immigration bill would cost $6.3Trillion, a number so outrageous that everyone panned it and it was finally retracted by the HF. One of HF's prominent members, Jason Richune famously said that Hispanics' IQs would ALWAYS be lower than whites. Hey, maybe add that to the SC curriculum!