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Rotten to the CORE

 The following piece was written by fellow Sacramento Teacher, Lori Jablonski and appears on The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education Website:

Few would argue that we need relief from the test-driven reform failure that is No Child Left Behind; unfortunately, the remedy that President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have provided states and school districts through the Race to the Top waiver would prove even more harmful to the future of public schools, the teaching profession, and the education of our children.  That’s why the state of California has refused to adopt specific policies that federal education officials consider necessary to win a waiver from No Child Left Behind sanctions.  Among these is the mandated adoption of test-based teacher accountability measures.

In August, the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), as part of a consortium[1] of seven other large California school districts working under the umbrella of a private consulting firm known as CORE (California Office to Reform Education)[2], was granted a one-year NCLB waiver by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan by deliberately circumventing the state of California and embracing top-down, undemocratic policies that the Governor and state officials rejected.   Even worse, the CORE Waiver would result in the creation of a parallel school governance authority, impacting millions of California children,