Lately, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has been serving up M.A.S.H. hash on several ‘core’ issues. In addition to retaining conservative-basher, Karl Rove, as an op-ed columnist, cramming Jeb Bush upon consumers of WSJ media, and not too clandestinely promoting amnesty (vs. legal immigration), the WSJ appears to subtly be promoting the imposition of Common Core, which is a plank of the unholy and unconstitutional U. N. Agenda 21, into the classrooms across the U. S.
I will address various comments directed towards the op-ed first, and then expand upon the original motivation for commenting on Common Core. As I address the issues, as with anything government related agency, there is a sea of alphabet soup when referencing the multiple players in this scheme to introduce a U. N. scripted agenda into our children’s classrooms. I will do my best to make these entities intelligible.
First, apparently, we are still expected to buy a pig in a poke. The Social Studies standards within Common Core have not yet been released. It reminds one of the
‘We have to pass it to see what’s in it’ idiocy surrounding Benghazi Care a/k/a ObamaCare. Not ironically, the standards for Common Core are copyrighted to the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Offices (CCSSO). This means that all content of the standards, and the costs of any changes associated with materials, testing, data processing, etc., have been usurped from the local school boards and state legislatures of states implementing Common Core. This also means that parental choice and input have been usurped as well!
The costs associated with ‘membership’ in the assessment consortium has been funded by Stimulus money until 2014, at which time, the states will be forced to increase state taxes precipitously to remain a member of the assessment consortium. By dictate, member states are required to have a plan in effect by September 1, 2014, for picking up the costs for remaining within the consortium. How many states’ Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), or equivalent, have disclosed this to their respective legislatures? Are current legislatures willing to bind future legislatures to this onerous, on-going and increasing cost of education within their respective states?
Recently, Alabama pulled out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, Indiana has halted implementation of Common Core to allow for further study of the curriculum, and Michigan has defunded Common Core. As states pull out of Common Core, the remaining member states’ costs increase. This ushers in an uncontrollable factor for which state legislators will be forced to compensate, if their state is to remain within the governing members of the consortium.
Two individuals who were members of the Common Core standards validation committees refused to sign-off on the standards. Dr. Jim Milgrim, the only mathematician on the math validation committee believes the new standards will reduce math education for American students to a level that will be two (2) years behind the highest international standards. Sandra Stotsky enjoys a highly acclaimed resume, and she was the only English language standards person to serve on the English Language Arts (ELA) review committee. Ms. Stotsky declined to sign-off on the Common Core ELA for several reasons. These reasons include, 1) the fact that the ELA standards, especially for grades 6-12, are mediocre, 2) the ‘behind-closed-doors’ process employed to develop Common Core’s standards, and 3) the secretive process being used to develop a national curriculum and national tests, based upon Common Core standards employed by the two testing consortia funded by the Department of Education (DOE). Additionally, within the literature curriculum for 6th to 8th graders, it appears there is a concerted effort to snip the educational umbilical cord that connects U. S. students to our republic’s rich legacy, by focusing almost solely upon some of the more tragic issues within our history. It isn’t that these issues should not be addressed, but they should not receive a disproportionate focus and intensity vs. the many positives within our history.
Contrary to the assertion that progressive education philosophy opposes any ‘set curriculum’, the specific purpose of communication, as described in the manual exposed in a ‘Utahans Against Common Core’
video is to develop students’ ‘ability’ to ‘advocate for solutions to social problems’.
The U. S. DOE funneled money to NGA/CCSSO, as did Bill Gates’ foundation, Pearson, McGraw-Hill and GE (gee, imagine that, GE and the President’s pet puppet are involved in Common Core; what could go wrong?). The DOE financed the standards and incentivized member states to adopt them. Among the changes in federal law, implemented to relax access to assessment data from tests aligned to the standards, was a revision involving the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This change allows data gathered through the assessment consortia, which developed tests aligned to Common Core, to be shared much more liberally and broadly, and with unknown entities that will be able to use the data for unknown purposes.
Governors were baited into signing onto the adoption of Common Core by the NGA before standards were written, and at a time when states were strapped for cash. There was an implied promise that the federal government would provide grant money and/or flexibility in Title 1 spending (waivers from No Child Left Behind), if they would adopt the standards, sight unseen. Additionally, the governors signed on before the changes were made to FERPA, and prior to the conditions for consortium membership were established. In the op-ed, Governor Daniels (IN) is cited as a supporter of Common Core, but recently, the current Governor of Indiana, Mike Spence, signed a bill to halt the implementation of Common Core within the state.
Ignored throughout this discussion is the fact that there are three (3) federal laws that prohibit the federal government from being involved in curriculum, assessment, and supervision of personnel. These laws are the ‘No Child Left Behind’, the ‘Department of Education Organization Act’, and the ‘General Educations Provisions Act’. Improving educational standards by comparing and contrasting curriculum, assessment and supervision of personnel is to be done at the state level. Has anyone inside the District of Corruption ever heard of Amendment X to our Constitution, and, if so, do they even care if they adhere to our Constitution and Bill of Rights?
As for the ‘intended benefits’ of Common Core, at the top of the list is the usurpation of state, local and parental/guardian rights and using the federal government as a conduit between the U. N. and the implementation of Common Core into our nation’s classrooms. The U. N.-Dakar Framework for Action and an agreement between Microsoft and UNESCO allows the camel’s nose of the U. N. to enter the tent of the U. S. educational systems.
Teachers’ unions are protected at the expense of the students. Because the testing within Common Core is standardized across all forms of education, there will be less of an incentive for parents to send their children to a private school, parochial school, or to home school their children. As the competition within the education industry is extinguished, this strengthens the teachers within the public school system, and their union organizations. With less competition, the incentive for a teacher to excel at his/her profession will decrease, and innovation will decline. In fact, because Common Core is a top-down muscling in upon our educational systems, innovation will be frowned upon, if not outlawed. Students will become victims of an invisible prison of propaganda, and the students at the bottom rungs of the educational ladder will suffer the most.
Because of the narrow focus of this curriculum, gifted students and students with challenges will not be served well within the Common Core curriculum. The incentive for a student to develop his/her God-given talents and pursuing personal achievement will be depressed, discouraging him/her from his/her pursuit of happiness and the American Dream.
As a student abandons personal achievement, he/she becomes malleable to the indoctrination ushered in through the Common Core curriculum. The conditioning entrenched within Common Core will manufacture lemmings, not leaders who might question the insanity of this ‘one-size-fits-all’ form of education imposed by self-appointed elites. It appears that the ultimate goal of the elites is to mold students into becoming soldiers of socialism who base their decisions upon Pavlovian-conditioned emotions, not critical thinking. This gives a whole new meaning to the ringing of a school bell!
The less a student achieves, the more likely he/she will lack the motivation, desire and the ability to ‘consume’ products, energy, etc., and accumulate personal property, which is in concert with the insane and unsustainable sustainability goals embedded within U. N. Agenda 21.
As stated above, once the Stimulus money evaporates in 2014, member states of Common Core will be forced to raise tax rates and revenues dramatically to offset the loss of federal tax money. This will siphon more money from families’ disposable income to fund the grand illusion of a high quality educational system, further repressing the proletariat of our society.
Tracking of students will usher in the tracking of citizens on a larger scale within society. Common Core data is discretely formatted for ‘linkages’, as per a memorandum, between the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the DOE.
Recently, Obama raised the possibility of having children start school at the vulnerable and impressionable age of 4. This is educational pedophilia! This would give the ‘system’ access to the young minds of 4-year olds across the country. For the students who are fortunate to have two parents, and/or a parent(s) who is (are) people of faith, this opens an opportunity to begin driving a wedge between parents’ morals and values and the collectivists’ amoral universe at this tender age.
While the elites atop each major political party have abandoned the people they have sworn an oath to serve and protect, the elites atop the Democrat Party have sold their souls to the party. With the system in place, the money laundering of funneling teachers’ union dues, etc., to the Democrat Party will be enhanced, as fewer students are indoctrinated outside of the public school system.
Of course, there are those, akin to Mr. Klein, Bill Gates, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and GE, who will benefit financially and/or with expanded power and influence with the imposition of Common Core upon a distracted populace.
If you have children, grandchildren, nieces and/or nephews, or just want what is best for students, the lies cleverly disguised within Common Core must be exposed. Become educated on this insidious plank within U. N. Agenda 21, and on Agenda 21 itself, to be able to repel these assaults upon our children, and our rights and our freedoms. Our children are our future. We need clear thinking, innovative leaders to emerge from our educational system to ensure that the torches of faith, hope, and our rights and freedoms are passed onto successive generations.
