|
|
|
Having taken over major parts of the banking industry, student loans and the healthcare industry, the Obama administration and its statist allies are now poised to take over what public schools teach our children. Author Orlean Koehle explains how it happened, why you should be concerned, and what can be done about it in her book Common Core. Though the cleverly named Common Core State Standards Initiative sounds as if it were developed by the states, Koehle explains that it was developed by trade groups and corporate interests that stand to make a lot of money from its implementation. The price tag for Common Core (CC) is enormous, with states bearing the brunt of the estimated $16-30 billion it will cost to implement the initiative nationwide. To add insult to injury, CC standards won't make kids any smarter. Though supporters claim CC standards are "more robust" than most current state standards, many educators disagree. In fact, the math standards are so substandard that the only real mathematician on the validation committee refused to sign off on them. The CC English standards effectively push out great American and English literature by requiring 50% of assigned readings to be "informational" texts. Many of the suggested "informational" readings promote the politically progressive ideology held by many of CC's key players and funders, such as global warming and socialized healthcare. Koehle also makes a credible case for links between CC and the United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainability movement whose agenda includes radical environmentalism, redistribution of wealth, and replacing equal justice under the law with leftist notions of "social justice." Private schools, charter schools, religious schools, and even home-schoolers will not be exempt from CC because the tests for high-school graduation, a GED, and college entrance will all be based on the CC curriculum. Colleges and universities will be forced to lower their academic standards to accommodate students educated under mediocre CC standards. The news is not all bad. The book's final chapters outline alternatives for true education reform and describe how many states that adopted CC are now resisting its implementation. Koehle provides a helpful action plan for parents and other concerned citizens to stem the tide of nationally controlled education. (Small Helm Press, 2012, 183 pp., $18) |
The Obama administration induced 46 states to give up local control of their English and math curricula through a combination of bribery, temporary No Child Left Behind waivers, and financial threats. Parents, local school boards, and state legislatures were all bypassed when their governors and/or state school boards committed them to adopting the standards sight unseen.
