The Momentum is Building!

 Here in the Magic Valley, we are mobilizing our efforts to expose Common Core as not just a set of mediocre standards, but as a federal intrusion into public education, stripping the rights of parents, teachers, and local administrators.  We are hosting two community informational meetings in the upcoming weeks.  In the Mini-Cassia area, we will gather July 31 at Sweetheart Manor in Burley at 7 PM.  In the Jerome/Twin Falls area, we will meet August 12 at the Comfort Inn conference room at the Crossroads Point, across from Flying J also @ 7 PM.  Both evenings will be a casual discussion of some concerns we have with Common Core and a plan of action to fight it.  Jennifer Bond of Jerome and Lynda Detweiler of Twin Falls will join me at both events.  Invite your family and friends and come get informed.  We have been researching Common Core for months and definitely have opinions on it.  We encourage you to do your own research and find out for yourselves if Common Core is the best thing for Idaho's future and Idaho's greatest asset:  our children.

Radio Program Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will be on AM 1230 @ noon with Scott Yeats talking about why we should be fighting Common Core and our plan of action. Please spread the word!

We Will Not Conform Event

Tonight I was able to attend Glenn Beck's "We Will Not Conform" event in a Twin Falls, ID, theater.  This event was broadcast live to over 700 theaters nation-wide.  It was motivating to feel that we are not alone in this fight.  More than anything, we have to connect.  We have to combine our efforts to fight this, especially in Idaho where so many (parents, educators, and leaders) still don't know all that Common Core entails.  Please spread the word!  And please plan to opt your kids out of the SBAC test next spring.  When this is done in large numbers, state and local administrators will have to recognize that Common Core is NOT what we want! But we have to join together. We want local control and we will fight until we win!  Please ask to join the Facebook group "Mini-Cassia Citizens Against Common Core" even if you don't live in Minidoka or Cassia counties.  We are all Idahoans!

Why We Should Fight Common Core

I am presenting my arguments tonight to the Cassia County Central Republican Committee on why we should be fighting Common Core.  Below are my notes that I will be using.  While this certainly isn't a complete argument, it has many of the major concerns I have with CCSS.

The History of Common Core

• The standards were developed by the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve, Inc., all Washington, DC, based private organizations who received funding primarily from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (to date over $200 BILLION) , as well as other private organizations.  These groups have no legislative power.
• The standards were written by a Standards Development Work Group of 29 people (almost half employed by testing companies, others were reps from Common Core groups, also text book companies, 2 educational consultants, and one college professor).  No elementary or secondary teachers were on the committees, no early childhood development experts, no parents, no legislators, no school board members.  We pay for public education!  This is education without representation.  Sandra Stotsky, a member of the validation committee for ELA standards, called the process of writing the standards "peculiar." Who chose these work group and committee members? How were they selected? No one seems to be concerned about the answer to these questions.  The two lead writers of the ELA standards, David Coleman and Susan Pimentel, have never taught English at the K-12 or college level!  As a side note, David Coleman is now president of the College Board and is rewriting the SAT to align with CCSS.  Do some research on him and see what kind of man he is.  The New York City school system wouldn't even hire him when he completed his Ivy League education. 
• Because these groups are private organizations, what happened in their meetings does not fall under the Freedom of Information Act.  It was behind closed doors.  In fact, members of the validations committees had to sign confidentiality agreements.  Why the secrecy?  Public and teacher input was invited, but the original work study group could consider or not any feedback given.  I will write more about that in a minute.  The work study group had the final say, according to the NGA press release in July of 2009.
• The CCSS were not piloted before being copyrighted and adopted by the states.  Kentucky even signed on to them (February 2010) before the one and only public draft was released in March of 2010.  The final standards were released in June of 2010.  Idaho State Board of Education initially signed on to them in August of 2010, approved only by the Senate Education Committee.
• The CCSS were not internationally benchmarked.  Those words were removed from the CC website to now say "internationally informed." The validation committee repeatedly requested information that these were researched-based and indeed internationally benchmarked.  No documentation was ever given.
• The standards were written in a period of about 9 months.  When Massachusetts overhauled their standards about 10 years ago, they debated and took feedback for two years. 
• The standards are touted as "rigorous."  Algebra 1 has been moved to freshmen year.  Jason Zimba, a lead writer of the math standards, admitted the CC math standards were written to get students into a two year community college, not select colleges, or the ones their parents most likely want their children attending.  Is this how we define career and college ready?  Fifty percent of reading in English class will now come from informational texts, moving up to 70% by the 12th grade.  Examples include insulation installation manuals and segments from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank on the effectiveness of the 2008 bailout.  When Bill Gates was asked in a recent interview if his kids were learning CCSS, he replied that they were learning a "super set" of Common Core.  The regular standards aren't good enough?
• The CCSS are not developmentally appropriate.  No early childhood educators or experts were on the development work group or the validation committees.  Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post reported in May 2014 that when the CCSS were first released, more than 500 childhood professionals signed a Joint Statement opposing the standards on the grounds that they would lead to long hours of direct instruction, more standardized testing, and would crown out highly important active, play-based learning.  All of this has come to pass.  The statement was not even reported in the "summary of public feedback" posted on the Core Standards website.
• Common Core Standards are enforced through tests administered by private testing companies.  Idaho belongs to the SBAC.  By the way, Linda Darling-Hammond is one of the lead developers of the SBAC.  In case that name doesn't ring a bell, she is a close associate of Bill Ayers--that Bill Ayers.  Who are we following? Most people don't even know!  These consortiums are overseen by the US Department of Education.  Admission or withdrawal from this consortium is done by consent of the USDOE.  We agreed to this with our Race to the Top application and also our application to the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.  This was one of four assurances we agreed to when we applied to received federal money.  The other three were creating a State Longitudinal Data System, turning around our failing schools, and recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and administrators.
• Race to the Top was a competition between states to receive grant money funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  $4.35 billion was earmarked for education--to save teacher's jobs, among other things.  Idaho applied, but was not awarded any money.  We were and are still accountable to the "assurances" which are now government mandates.  Applying for RTTT also helped us be eligible for a waiver from No Child Left Behind.  Part of the Students Come First legislation (remember the Luna Laws?) was ensuring that Idaho was compliant with these assurances.  When those laws were struck down by voters in 2010, that waiver was threatened.  The Governor's Task Force on Education was established to maintain our compliance.
• We are told that each state can add up to 15% of their own standards to the CCSS.  But we cannot rewrite or change the 85% that is copyrighted by the NGA.  Plus, the 15% will not be tested on. When teachers' evaluations are on the line, what standards are they going to focus on the most?  Those on the test.
• One of the more popular talking point in that Common Core are only standards, not curriculum (because it is unconstitutional to have a national curriculum).  But standards drive curriculum. Pearson, Prentice/Hall and other textbook companies are working furiously to provide curriculum aligned with Common Core.  Bill Gates said himself at the 2009 National Conference of State Legislatures, after acknowledging that 46 states had then committed to the state standards, "that is encouraging--but identifying common standards is not enough.  We'll know we've succeeded when the curriculum and the tests are aligned to these standards."  They have the tests, the curriculum will soon follow.
• Another concern is the State Longitudinal Data System, mentioned above.  The USDOE released a summary of what they wanted to see in a data system.  "The Secretary is also particularly interested in applications in which States propose working together to adapt one State's state-wide longitudinal data system so that it may be used, in whole or part, by one or more other states, rather than having each state build or continue building such systems independently."  It has been reported that up to 400 data points of information will be collected through SLDS, including test scores, health history, family income, religion, attitudes, behaviors, biometric data (which the state denies having the equipment to measure; that maybe true now, but it is coming ( Read Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance on the USDOE website).  LeAnn Castor, a teacher in the Treasure Valley, wrote a letter about this report that explains her reaction after reading this report.
• Four states have repealed Common Core in their states (Indiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Louisiana).  Chief Justice John Roberts warned that 'states should defend their prerogatives by adopting' the simple expedient of not yielding" to federal blandishments when they do not want to embrace the federal policies as their own.  The States are separate and independent sovereigns.  Sometimes they have to act like it."  It's time for Idaho to act like the sovereign state that it is and  repeal Common Core!