Why Common Core’s roll-out is as bad as ObamaCare’s (by Sandra Stotsky)
It’s odd to observe just how oblivious the media have been to the chaotic roll-out of Common Core (what some are already calling ObamaCore) and the disturbing parallels with the so-called Affordable Care Act. These are the two major domestic initiatives of the Obama administration, and while attention has been paid recently to the potentially millions of individuals losing their health plans, still precious little (respectful) attention has been paid to angry parents, teachers, and school administrators. It is the case that the less the public knows about their growing hostility to the long tentacles of Common Core, the harder it will be for the public to understand that the end game is the same—central control of two major segments of the national economy: education and health care. Not educational improvement.
Common Core is clearly not protecting the interests of poor black and Hispanic children—students whose parents cannot afford the tutoring that STEM preparation will require. The media have simply turned into ostriches about the absence of math standards leading to a STEM career (acknowledged openly as long ago as March 2010 by the lead math standards-writer Jason Zimba) and how their absence will favor kids with mathematically literate parents.
Most recently, as Deutsch29 details, survey after survey, most funded in part by the Gates Foundation, claim to show how much teachers and school administrators love the “common” standards, curricula, grading policies, professional development, and assessments that their state board of education and department of education imposed on them in the name of equalizing low academic expectations across state lines, especially in mathematics.
Misrepresentation #1: Teachers like Common Core, according to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). But see this.
Misrepresentation #2: Teachers like Common Core, according to the National Education Association (NEA). But see this.
Misrepresentation #3: Principals support Common Core according to the National Association of Elementary School Principals (www.naesp.org/leadership-common-core). But see this.
Misrepresentations are borne of ignorance or intellectual blinders. With so many misrepresentations piling up here, one wonders if these are willful lies. Education reporters worth their salt would be, first, eager to understand what teachers and principals (and, god forbid, parents) really think. And, second, they would dig deep into why there are so many misrepresentations coming from Common Core proponents.
