COMMON CORE (politicians fear and educated voter class) READ Plz EXCERPTS FROM “OUR CHILDREN ‘S FUTURE” (FloridaStopCommonCoreCoalition, August 2013), Randy Osborne “Here are our views on the problems with the Common Core system….” Says Randy Osborne (With Bledsoe’s personal wording, and apologies to the FSCCC). Many of the problems include: 1. Developed by unaccountable (unelected) private individuals and groups. 2. Copyrighted standards that cannot be changed. 3. Incentivising (I call it ‘bribery!”) adoption of the CCS with federal money and waivers….a violation of the U. S. Constitution AND three federal laws. 4. NO field testing. 5. Florida’s math standards are ranked higher than CCS. 6. Numerous other State’s standards were more rigorous than CC. 7. Low-quality 7th grade-level math/English standards leading to high school CC Standards. 8. Developed by five major architects who had no K-12 classroom experience. 9. Dropping some 75% of classical literature in favor of federally-issued infor- mational texts. This reduces critical thinking and vocabulary skills. 10. Delay of math skills that will harm acceptance to a four-year university. 11. Standards will drive a curriculum in order to pass a high-stakes test. (Still ‘teaching to the test’). 12. Ideally, parents and duly elected School Board members should control standards, curriculum and assessments. 13. There are plans to teach, test, and collect data on student’s psychological attitudes, values, and beliefs….as well as their parent’s political affiliation! 14. Five highly-respected academicians on the team creating the Standards re- fused to sign off on the final version. 15. The Florida Department of Education has falsely claimed that there is no TWO Federal involvement in the program. 16. Test Results will have high-stake consequences including student grade- advancement, student graduation, teacher pay and tenure, District grades, and funding. 17. Teachers are being forced to use highly-scripted or computerized lessons in order to maximize results on tests, which will reduce teacher flexibility and creativity. 18. Reducing everything a student learns and what a teacher teaches to a test- result only impoverishes education. 19. The overall cost$$$ to implement CCSS is unaffordable and unsustainable. 20. Florida laws passed in 2013 requiring the test implementation to be based on ‘funding, sufficient field and baseline data, access to assessments, instruct- ional alignment, and School District readiness to administer the Common Core assessments on line, as well as adequate and independently verified technological load-testing for all Districts’ is being violated. FloridaStopCommonCoreCoalition believes it is necessary that the State with- draw completely from using Common Core standards…IF the CCSS are as vol- untary as the proponents claim. IF CCSS are voluntary, there should be NO problem….or penalty….for withdrawing! Bledsoe says: There is no Constitutional provision whatever for the Federal government to control education….public or otherwise. Education is not one of the enumerated powers, and Constitutional Amendment 10 clearly states that powers not enumera- ted to Congress (federal government) ARE a responsibility of the State, or of the people! With that clearly stated….it should be an imperative move of the PEOPLE to eliminate the source of the problem….the federal Department of Education…which costs taxpayers some $$16 BILLION $$ a year….and…demand that Congress en- force the Constitution of the United States, while not enforcing any United Nations Treaty that violates the U. S. Constitution! COMMON CORE: MORE THAN AN OPINION Some will say: “Here we go again!” Time/space constraints will not allow me to cover all that needs to be said. After two years of digging into C. C., I find it increasingly reprehensible that ‘educators’ buy into this head-game. Many will not bother to read this column through. We call that a “closed mind.” Suffice it to say, I did not just fall off the turnip truck. When I first heard of C. C., I did what most rational people would do: I went to the source: the C. C. Initiative, and their own documents. I do read opponents’ views, also. Consider: Bill Gates; Linda Darling-Hammond; David Coleman; Arne Duncan; Barack Obama; Pearson (British conglomerate); McGraw-Hill; SIECUS; Planned Parenthood; the United Nations (yes!); and many more….all connected at the hip on C. C. All avowed Socialists, and they push globalist government in their curriculum section: Building Cultural Bridges. This is recommended and approved by C. C. I said ‘curriculum,’ however Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz declares C. C. is not a curriculum, it is a set of standards. I have volumes of C. C. Initiative documents; many refer to C. C. as a curriculum! Who’s telling the truth? Too many people fall for this untested, untried ‘head game’, just as they fell for previous federal-mandated programs that have continued to dumb-down public education: Outbased Education; School-to-Work, Values Clarification, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, every one failed miserably, and now, this Socialist-indoctrination game called Common Core! “Every student will be college ready” is the popular mantra! How do they know? This head-game has never been tried or tested, just as the others were never tested….and everyone failed. Two… Florida Stop Common Core Coalition has published a 40- page Analysis on the subject. Well documented. Easy to understand. sunshinestatenews/print/5386342 Educators and politicians continue to attack the messenger rather than the message of C. C. opponents. We have been called everything but human. Calling us names simply reinforce the point that support- ers of C. C. have no defense. There is a major outrage, backlash against C. C. nationwide! But you would not know that just listening to “educators”, politicians, and the mainstream media. One major solution to “public” education is to demand that Congress enforce the Constitution and eliminate the federal Department of Education. It is unConstitutional! American citizens must keep a tight rein on our elected officials, from City to federal! Listen: “Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their atten- tion. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature.” (Thomas Jeffer- son in a letter to Edward Carrington, Jan. 16, 1787). The greatest fear of any politician is an informed, educated voter!
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:03:32 +0000
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