No unity found in Common Core
Published July 22, 2014
Editorial by Jacksonville Daily News, July 21, 2014.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The cream of America’s policy and education establishment came together with unprecedented swiftness to unify around the Common Core educational standards. It was expected that the American people — and elected officials — would follow suit.
Instead, Common Core has created yet another polarizing national battle, playing out on fronts spread across the country.
In North Carolina, the squabble has been typical of the chaos and division surrounding the program. In Raleigh, Gov. Pat McCrory was an early supporter of Common Core. Then he turned tepid about it. Meanwhile, the N.C. General Assembly voted this summer to end Common Core as it’s now in place and directed the state Board of Education to come up with alternative standards.
Common Core’s unelected faithful haven’t changed their minds. But they’ve failed to make the case to detractors that their grand plans amount to more than a costly new form of top-down uniformity — a whole country’s worth of busy work.
It’s a problem made crystal clear by the latest polling on the issue. A new Pew study reveals that even self-identified “business conservatives” oppose Common Core by more than 2-1.
According to Pew’s typology, business conservatives are exactly the kind of voter to whom Common Core was most forcefully pitched. They “share steadfast conservatives’ preference for limited government, but differ in their support for Wall Street and business, as well as immigration reform. And business conservatives are far more moderate on social issues than are steadfast conservatives.”
These were supposed to be Common Core’s own core — its central force of slam-dunk political supporters. In a full-page New York Times ad that ran in February 2013, the sales pitch began in earnest: 73 “business leaders,” largely CEOs of major corporations and organizations, threw their unqualified support behind Common Core.
But the explanations for why it might be important were never adequately addressed for most Americans. Common Core’s avid supporters in the business community failed to realize that business conservatives still have a conservative attitude toward perceptions of social engineering by policymakers. They took it for granted that Common Core’s advantages to American business were self-evident.
To be sure, pro-business Republicans oftentimes accept a greater government role in society if it means more profit. Common Core’s advocates were thinking rationally when they presumed that their target market would accept a bigger federal footprint in education if they believed it was good enough for business.
But Common Core’s corporate backers didn’t convince them of that.
It’s a given that higher standards in public education is the goal for which all school systems should strive. But how to get there illustrates another in our nation’s great philosophical divides.
July 22, 2014 at 10:20 am
Norm Kelly says:
Philosophical divide. Central control vs. states rights. Constitutional vs. unConstitutional. Flexibility vs. conformity. Creativity vs. dictated standards.
Some people believe that there should be high standards in schools, where education of kids of paramount importance. As opposed to the current occupier who seems more interested in getting high than any standard! (couldn't resist throwing in some truth and poking libs in the eye again! cuz it's just fun!) Then there are some people who believe that kids need to be indoctrinated into a specific philosophy. Those same people who believe in indoctrinating kids into their way of thinking object to having it called indoctrination. Yet, somehow, fear of guns is taught in schools, indoctrinating kids into the lib idea that guns are bad. Somehow, kids are being taught that the gay lifestyle is acceptable but discussion of heterosexual relationships, heterosexual actions are frowned upon and sometimes even cause innocent kindergarteners to be suspended from school for hugging a person of the opposite sex! Somehow kids are taught about abortion but abstinence is frowned upon in the classroom. Those who want to indoctrinate our kids do it on a regular basis, disguise it as they wish, but it's still indoctrination and they object to it being properly identified. Similar to the way libs object to properly identifying illegal aliens.
Since the inception of Communist Core, more and more about it has been revealed. Just like when Comrade Pelosi told us that we'd have to pass Obamacancer to know what was in it, we had to accept Communist Core before we had any idea what it contained. The more people learn about Nancy's & K's plan to socialize the medical system in our country, the more people object to it. The more people learn about Communist Core, the more people object to it. The reasons are clear on Obamascare: it's socialist at it's core and every socialist scheme has failure built in. Communist Core is harder to identify. It has NO TRACK RECORD for producing kids who can think logically, creatively, critically. Yet we are told that we MUST continue to follow the central plan. It may be true that the prior standards in NC were insufficient. It's true that school boards, as in Wake County, do everything they can to lower standards without alarming parents (sometimes!), but they have continued to lower standards anyway. There MUST be some level of control to keep out-of-control school boards like this in line. But central planning is NOT the answer.
Using a set of standards to further the indoctrination is also not the answer. Forcing sex manuals upon young kids, before they are capable of understanding what they are reading, is not right either. Peggy has 2 mommies is not appropriate for kindergarten, regardless of what the standard says. Peggy has 2 mommies shouldn't be taught by default anyway. Topics like this MUST be given parental approval prior to being taught to kids. Forcing your beliefs and religion on my kids is no more acceptable than me forcing my beliefs and religion on your kid. My religion centers on Jesus, yet I am restricted from teaching ANYTHING about Him in public schools. Kids have had their Bibles taken away from them in public schools, kids have been told to close the Bible and not bring it back to school in the future. Even when it's 'free reading' time, the public school system tries to prevent kids from reading the Bible. Yet, for some reason, the lib concept of 'everything is right' is openly taught with zero regard for how it affects parents, the family, or the upbringing that parents want to expose their kids to or when parents want their kids exposed. Libs INSIST that they know better and MUST be allowed to do as they please.
Which is where Communist Core has gotten. Parents are told that their opinion does NOT count. The system will do with kids what it wants, when it wants, in the way it wants. Which is called INDOCTRINATION in any other setting.
Is a set of standards good? Maybe. Should the standards be set by the central planners? Only the most extremely limited set of standards. Otherwise, standards should be set at the state level. Knowing certain things is good. Having an expectation that by the end of 3rd grade, for instance, every kid should know their multiplication tables through 12s is good. Having a standard that says every kid in the country MUST follow the same 14-step process to get to the proper answer of 14+4=? isn't just stupid; it's counterproductive. Forcing a set of steps on kids for no reason, with no flexibility is indoctrination, regardless of who objects to the description. Regardless of how much money the central planners want to spend on the program, without flexibility it's not educating. It's indoctrinating. Plain and simple.
Should parents be able to object to indoctrination? Yes. Have the Communist Core standards transformed from standards to indoctrination? Since we have had insufficient time to make a full determination, we can only go based on the information currently available. The currently available information is that Communist Core has gone beyond a set of standards and has transformed into a curriculum. A curriculum which mostly can not be justified or defended. So states MUST be allowed to determine our own path forward. Regardless of the objections from leftists, indoctrinators, or central planners. We MUST be allowed to do what is RIGHT for OUR kids! Parents MUST be in control. Big education, the education establishment objects to this thought process. But it is the RIGHT thought process.
