After spending several days in Iowa, it is clear Republican voters in the Hawkeye state – no matter which GOP presidential candidate they support – agree it’s time to rein in the federal government, especially on issues such as marriage, education and healthcare.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump denounced Common Core as a “disaster” and “a way of taking care of the people in Washington” who don’t “give a damn about education” at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa on Saturday. Trump said, “Common
Launched on Monday, a press release about Campbell Brown’s news site highlights initial stories about a search-and-rescue pilot for the Coast Guard who became a second-grade teacher at a charter school in Newark, NJ; a column about the necessity of addressing the relationship between educational inequality and income inequality; and an investigative piece that focuses on “the forces and scare tactics behind the opt-out movement” in Montclair, New Jersey.
Republican presidential candidate and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said “commonality of the standards is important” on Common Core and criticized the Iran deal in an interview broadcast on Wednesday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel. Jeb was asked
“You start in Iowa and lock up conservatives, because if you don’t do that, none of the rest matters,” Walker’s adviser reportedly told journalist Tim Alberta. “It’s much easier to move from being a conservative to being a middle-of-the-road moderate later on. In Iowa, you see the beginnings of that,” he added. “He’s capturing that conservative wing first and foremost, and then moving from Iowa to the other states and bringing other voters into the fold.”
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is one of two federally funded interstate test consortia that have been developing tests aligned with the controversial Common Core standards. But there is no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. None of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level.
Senator Lamar Alexander falsely claims his No Child Left Behind Reauthorization bill, labeled the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), will rein in the federal government. Like its House counterpart, ECAA has superficial “prohibitions” on what the U.S. Secretary of Education may do. Those prohibitions merely replicate existing prohibitions and, in any event, lack any kind of enforcement mechanism for the states.
An amendment was successfully added to the Student Success Act that could possibly bring an end to Common Core. This week, the US House narrowly passed the reauthorization of HR 5 (the Student Success Act). HR 5 is the controversial proposed replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. The amendment, authored by conservative Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), would allow a state to opt-out of Common Core “or other specific standards” without reprisals from the feds. It passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support in a 373-57 vote.
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) touted a proposal to report reading, math, and science tests results publicly and make “whether your state adopts Common Core” entirely your state’s decision” during Saturday’s GOP Weekly Address. Transcript (via ABC News Radio) as Follows: “Hello,
Slate writer Will Saletan took to Twitter to show that his son lost five points on a health test because the answer he chose as the definition of the word “family” was considered “incorrect.”
“I watched Jeb Bush…I think it’s pathetic what’s going on, his stance on Common Core,” Trump said. “He’s in favor of Washington educating your children.” Bush is the founder of the pro-Common Core Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE).
At issue is the fact that while Walker proposed defunding the Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced exam in his budget, the new “Badger Exam” that replaces it will also be aligned with the controversial standards, making it unlikely that many local school districts would opt for non-Common Core standards.
The House’s version of the redo, known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), was pulled from the House floor by GOP leadership in late February after it was determined the measure lacked sufficient support. Grassroots parents’ groups – many that have been fighting against the Common Core standards in their states – voiced their concerns that the Student Success Act still required excessive federal intrusion into the right of states to set their own education policies.
The number of homeschooled children in the United States has soared nearly 62 percent over the past decade, and national homeschooling organizations are anticipating even further growth in home education as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.
Following a year of technology problems and complaints from angry parents, Ohio has become the latest state to dump the federally-funded PARCC Common Core test consortium.
Walker, a likely 2016 contender, has recently affirmed what has been true of Wisconsin school districts all along – that they can choose their own standards. To his credit, he has also proposed defunding the Smarter Balanced test, a product of one of the federally funded, interstate Common Core test consortia. Grassroots parents groups, however, say Walker’s proposed new state exam – called the “Badger Exam,” is also aligned with the Common Core standards.
Jindal has heard the complaints of many parents in his state and has said that as a parent himself he could see the difficulties his own son was having with Common Core math. Ultimately, he unveiled an aggressive plan to eliminate Common Core in Louisiana, one that exposed how the state board of education and department of education can attempt to work around government rules and the state legislature in order to meet its own goals.
The vice president of content and scoring management at Pearson North America agreed to a comparison of the training for scorers of the Common Core tests to how a restaurant chain monitors its employees’ work.
The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) announced Monday that it has joined in filing a lawsuit against the governor of North Dakota and other officials that claims the state’s participation in one of the federally funded interstate Common Core test consortia and the implementation of the Common Core standards is unconstitutional and violates federal laws that ban federal control of public schools and curriculum.
It’s been a rough first week on the trail for Jeb Bush. First, protesters — from the left and the right — greeted Bush in New Hampshire. Then, opponents of the Common Core standards protested their state’s former governor in Tampa Friday at the Hillsborough County Republican Lincoln Day dinner.
Who wants him? Protesters from all political persuasions stood outside the Adams Memorial Opera House with signs that blasted Jeb Bush for his support for the Common Core standards, NSA spying, as well as his apparent failure to articulate an environmental plan.
“[I]f graders around the country complain publicly that the new tests are not being handled fairly or competently,” Education Columnist Jay Mathews warns, “the debate will become more serious, and one of America’s most ambitious school reforms will be in jeopardy.”
When he’s on script, Jeb’s a conservative with rhetoric no different than Ted Cruz’s. When he’s off-script, Jeb turns against conservative policy in a heartbeat.
Republican leaders seem poised to resume attempts to convince the conservative base of their party that the bill will reduce federal involvement in education and return it to the states and localities.
The authors observe that regardless of the decision in Jindal’s case, state and local school boards are facing significant challenges in “the collapsing morale and educational achievement of their students,” and need to consider their own legal path to rid themselves of the Common Core boondoggle.
