Common Core Being Problematic Was an "Automatic"

Common Core State Standards were developed in 2009 for the purpose of creation of more rigorous K-12 curriculum standards in math and literacy. It was a hasty, rushed task, and the final product ignored the needs of children with disabilities, English-language learners and children in the early grades. Had it gone, grade by grade as integration had in many states or even 3-4 years increments, it might not have failed so spectacularly. With knowledge that the Common Core was "on the way" -- President Obama announced Race to the Top in 2009, a competition for $4.35 billion in federal grant money. Obama's Administration provided the "diabolical grant details" so that in order to qualify, states had to adopt “college and career ready standards,” which was a sleezy and down low requirement used to force and pressure them into adopting the half-baked Common Core national standards. ************************************************************************************************************** A Democrat-dominated Congress had deliberately left the grant requirements to Obama and his minions so that states competing for funds would need to adopt common state standards, create more charter schools, evaluate teachers and principals based on gains in student achievement, emphasize the preparation of students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and/or restructure the lowest 5 percent of their schools. "Grease" was applied to the already "slippery slope because states applying for competitive funds under the grant program were informed ahead of time that they would receive up to 40 of the 500 available points for “developing and adopting common standards.” No points were available for states developing or improving their own standards. Thus incentivized by points toward "all that money", almost every state applied, even before the Common Core specifics were released in June 2010. With this "insider-ism edge" - it’s no surprise that there has been widespread pushback. Naturally, every state intending to apply for funding signed on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative as it was the only game in town meeting the conditions proscribed for the Race to the Top. ************************************************************************************************************** As of late 2017, 44 states had been lured in and had adopted the standards. But even with this seeming "universal OK", the Common Core State Standards are among the most controversial pieces of legislation (POL or POS?) in the country. Common Core already helped doom "ardent supporter" former Florida Governor Jeb Bush despite his campaign war chest of $100 million. Donald Trump knew that Jeb Bush's Common Core mind-warp would "kill Bush" although the "infection" probably will not actually be fatal for years. Ted Cruz realized that Common Core's "every word" - needed the garbage heap probably since Texas and others - have allegedly become infested with some of it. ************************************************************************************************************** A "popular" video about recommended approaches to teaching the Common Core, encourages teachers to spend eight days (!) teaching Martin Luther King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” without any suggestion whatsoever that the teacher might want to explore students’ experiences with racism (which is understandably subjective and therefore avoidable) or other topical issues. Teachers are expected to force students to “just stick to the text” in discussions. ************************************************************************************************************** Common Core's main excuse to avoid making serious efforts to decrease the main causes of low student achievement -- poverty and racial segregation. ************************************************************************************************************** Nevertheless education-wise, serious discussion of America's one-size-fits-all education system definitely MUST begin with a realization of reality. The public school system forms the government-dominated school network that has been "moved left" through education grants with influential strings and progressive ideology like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), also known as the Gates Foundation. The Foundation is controlled by its three trustees namely - Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett. Some other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Susan Desmond-Hellmann. ************************************************************************************************************** The Gates Foundation has a massive contingency of 1382 employees, some formulating and writing Common Core which has drawn criticism from millions of parents nationwide since "day one" of Common Core being foisted on state after state. Presently over 40 are "Cored out" and the remaining are malfluenced enough that they are accused of being Common Core Clones, at least in a number of ways. ************************************************************************************************************** It has to be true that states have tried to IMPROVE Common Core by changing some of the things like the 4th grader "If a pimp has ...etc, etc." WHY do young children HAVE TO BE EXPOSED to "adult themes of a sub-culture" that few adults have "familiarity with"? This is NOT "equalizing the playing field". Princess Di of England did not want "mines" anywhere near "playing fields" and these "adult themes of a sub-culture" present "mines" of a different sort. Children are naturally inquisitive and are sure to ask just about anybody they think might know - "What, Mommy - is a PIMP? And WHY is that person interested in making MONEY from "garden tools?" Yes, SOME children think that a "HOE" always has the "E" and they know THAT as "something else". ************************************************************************************************************** One of the biggest "gripes" about "CC" is its seeming ignoring of one of the most important tasks teachers have today. This is helping students understand why learning something should matter as in,"Why should they care?" And “Because it will be on the test” or “Because you might need it someday for college” does not "get it" or suffice as answers. Besides, teachers do not assume that even a certain percentage of their students will attend college so this answer is usually avoided altogether. ************************************************************************************************************** Common Core is one key aspect of the Gates Foundation's U.S. efforts to overhaul of the country's education policies at both the K-12 and college levels. Other efforts are said to include support for teacher evaluations and charter schools and opposition to seniority-based layoffs. To the Foundation's credit, it has fought other aspects of the education system that are typically backed by teachers' unions, spending $373 million on education in 2009. Unfortunately, it has "lost its marbles" and donated to the two largest national teachers' unions - the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. This is akin to lighting $100 cigars with $100 bills since union protection of mediocre, uninspired and ineffective teachers has even used seniority-based layoffs to keep older lesser effective teachers while laying off younger, better, more effective teachers. Particularly egregious has been the foundation being the biggest early backer of the Common Core State Standards Initiative AKA Common Core Standards (CCS) and related assessments, which became manditory in almost all 50 states - forced on an unwilling populace by bureaucratic institutions and corporate interest groups. ************************************************************************************************************** The failure of non-responsive school administrators and detached politicians to respond to these concerns has ignited parental outrage, and a challenge to the Common Core has been heard from the people across the country. Parents and teachers have formed a network of grassroots activists dedicated to fighting the Common Core and restoring the people’s right to govern the education of their children. ************************************************************************************************************** In support of the successful efforts of grassroots activists, parents at the forefront of the Common Core struggle have joined forces with one of the leading national organizations fighting the Common Core, American Principles in Action. Together, they have united to form Parents Against Common Core (PACC). United, they will continue to defend the principles and core beliefs of both groups – that we are all “created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” ************************************************************************************************************** But government is "dug in" and entrenched since it seized control of education in the second half of the 19th century. Keeping that in mind, it's pointless to consider what 'ought to be', and SHOULD BE before we fully assess 'what is'. In the spirit of Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers - for the first century of their existence, government schools achieved its fundamental and critical purpose namely producing educated individuals. This goal was continued and achieved, more or less, until watered-down and weakened by the Educrat invasion of the 1970's. Since this twisted re-purposing, schools were retooled for a new and detrimental and not-so-well-learned product - namely students with self-esteem. The venerable 3 R's became such inane notions as outcome based education, social promotions, whole language, whole word reading which destroyed reading and spelling ability, the 'new' math, revisionist history and bilingual education. As a direct consequence, graduates can't read, write, compute, or logically solve problems but they've got terrific self-esteem. They get medals and awards for "showing up" and even "finishing last place" in competitions. Consequentially and promoting distraction from any real learning is a lot of 'stuff' going on in government schools...a terrific amount of 'stuff', but sadly and tragically, imparting knowledge to students' "skulls full of mush" is not part and parcel of it. ************************************************************************************************************** Several states are backing out of Common Core and others will follow. But the "road back" is f\difficult. ************************************************************************************************************** Similarly, beating back, the Common Core - does not always yield wins because it always "slithers" back in a modified form when defeated. ************************************************************************************************************** But the destruction of U.S. education doesn't matter a wit if this is a conspiracy or conquering from within goal by Marxists, or a misguided ploy by multicultural morons. The end and ongoing result is the same: a critical mass of government programmed "bone-heads" who lack the intellectual tools to resist the propaganda of our ever-growing and over-sized Nanny State nitwits. A "wake-up call" has sounded for U.S. taxpayers to come to the realization of one simple fact: this one size fits all government school system warped by Common Core - does not work As a Democrat majority congress passed money-incentive ARRA to encourage Common Core adaptation, Trump & a Republican majority Congress can eliminate Common Core so that the states can re-establish their own solutions to improve US education.