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REBELLION: Lawmakers from 30+ States Declare War on Common Core
http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/s...n-common-core/



REBELLION: Lawmakers from 30+ States Declare War on Common Core
More than 30 states are fighting back against Common Core, rejecting the federal...
Capitalism Institute

REBELLION: Lawmakers from 30+ States Declare War on Common Core

The “state-led” federal initiative to standardize educational curriculums across the country, known as Common Core, is a really bad idea.
It is confusing to students and parents, and has frustrated many teachers. The math is nonsensical and more difficult than it needs to be, and the English, history and social studies are chock full of progressive socialist propaganda that many fear is indoctrinating the children.
Some states are fighting back though, as Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina have pulled out of the Common Core standards, and will replace them with educational standards determined on the local and state level. This obviously isn’t sitting well with the feds though, as Education Secretary Arne Duncan made some not-so-veiled threats against Oklahoma and any other state thinking of dropping the federal standards.
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Now many other states are following the lead of Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina, and are looking to adopt their own standards instead of the federally-backed Common Core, according to WND.
The battle over the deceptively titled Common Core State Standards Initiative, or CCSSI, is raging, and the rhetoric is fierce. Supporters of the national standards have called their opponents “right-wing nuts” and “black helicopter” types.
“All of us get lumped together as ‘the fringe,’ ‘the far right,’ tea partiers,’ etc.,” said Jane Robbins, co-author of the report “Controlling Education from the Top: Why the Common Core is Bad for America.”
“When they don’t have the facts on their side they resort to ad-hominem,” she said.
Opponents of Common Core believe it is a plot by progressive elites to indoctrinate children and place them under the control of the federal government through the public school system.
That view was reinforced when a panelist at the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress discounted the opposition as only a “tiny minority,” claiming such views should be ignored because “the children belong to all of us.”
Some supporters of Common Core, like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, are calling for a rebranding of the national standards, because the name has become “toxic”. But the standards remain the same even under a new name.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan claims opposition to Common Core is coming from “white, suburban moms” who are suddenly discovering their children are not “as brilliant as they thought they were.” When Duncan’s comments went viral, “white, suburban moms” quickly found many defenders in the blogosphere and opinion columns.
In January, Duncan spoke to a gathering of curriculum professionals. As he lectured them on the distinction between standards and curricula, he asserted that “not a word, not a single semi-colon of curriculum [sic] will be created, encouraged, or prescribed by the federal government.”
But Duncan’s pep talk to curriculum specialists about their role in implementing the standards only increased the perception that it is indeed a federal, not a state, initiative.
All of the major tests measuring college preparedness are becoming aligned with Common Core, including the ACT, SAT, and even the GED.
Fearing this link between the national standards and high-stakes testing, the board of New York’s teachers union voted unanimously Jan. 25 to withdraw its support for the national standards “as they are being implemented.” The union board also declared no confidence in Education Commissioner John King Jr., a Common Core backer, and asked the Board of Regents to remove him. Union leaders urged the state education department to make “major course corrections to its failed implementation plan” and enact a three-year moratorium on the testing.
The Board of Regents responded to the concerns by giving public schools five more years to implement Common Core. Public school teachers will not be held accountable for student test scores for two years.
Even some members of Congress are fighting against Common Core, with Kansas Senator Pat Roberts filing a bill that would return educational standards to the local level.
The bill, titled the “Learning Opportunities Created at the Local Level Act,” would prohibit the federal government from coercing states to adopt education standards like Common Core. The act would forbid the federal government from intervening in a state’s education standards, curricula and assessments through the use of incentives, mandates, grants, waivers or any other form of manipulation.
Roberts opposed the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant program, and he and nine other senators have gone on record against spending any federal funds to develop education curriculum or standards, including the Common Core. Given the present make-up of the Senate, Roberts’ efforts may not gain much headway in Congress.
The real fight against Common Core is taking place at the state level though, as some 30 states are currently looking at legislation that would return decision making about educational standards to the local or state level.
Some states are now delaying implementation of the standards, such as New York. Illinois has bills in both legislative chambers to delay implementation. Colorado’s legislation would delay them until public hearings have been held. Rhode Island wants to study and evaluate the standards.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is one of the biggest advocates for Common Core, and he has been instrumental behind the scenes in it’s implementation.
Jane Robbins, senior fellow at the American Principles Project, said Jeb Bush “is the ‘big gorilla’ behind the Common Core movement.”
“Bill Gates is the financier, but Jeb Bush is the one who is twisting the arms of all of these Republican governors and legislators around the country not to do the right thing and regain local control,” Robbins said.

Now the question is whether Bush’s influence in Florida is strong enough to stop efforts there to repeal Common Core. A bill to prohibit the State Board of Education from continuing to implement the Common Core Standards has been introduced in the Florida House, which convenes March 4. The bill (H.B. 25) would stop implementation until certain requirements are met for the adoption or revision of state curricular standards. It also would prohibit Florida from implementing Common Core-aligned assessments.
Common Core supporters are hoping H.B.25 won’t go anywhere. It’s being held in the House and Senate education committees until a companion bill is offered in the Senate. Karen Effrem, co-founder of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition, said a Senate companion bill has been written and will be submitted.
Effrem said that since Florida is “the land of Jeb Bush,” if these bills pass “it would be a huge shot in the arm to the anti-Common Core movement not only in Florida, but in the rest of the country.”
“And that is why ‘the powers that be’ are fighting us so hard.”
The proponents of Common Core did not expect so much opposition and pushback against their nationalized standards.
The Heritage Foundation, Heartland Foundation, Pioneer Institute and the American Principles Project, which produced the scathing report on Common Core, “Controlling Education from the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America,” are all providing intellectual bullets and moral support to those on the battle lines. Co-authors of the APP report, Emmett McGroarty and Jane Robbins, have been traveling around the country to speak to groups that are fighting the standards.
“They thought people would be sheep and roll over and accept what the experts told them to do; but it hasn’t turned out that way,” she said.
Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee now have bills in their state legislatures to halt or abolish the standards.
This is great news. States need to continue to pushback against an overreaching federal government that is trying to set national education standards that won’t work. While the feds claim Common Core will raise the bar of standards, the reality is that it is a one-size-fits-all set of standards that actually lowers the bar, setting a standard of mediocrity.
The federal government has absolutely no business being involved in setting the educational standards of the children of this nation. That is something that is squarely in the purview of individual states, municipalities and local school districts.
Furthermore, the federal government should get out of the education business altogether, with all public schools being privatized, letting parents decide where and how their kids will be educated. At most, the federal government should provide a voucher system that would help the less fortunate among us send their kids to the same schools as everybody else, if they so choose.

http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/s...n-common-core/