Education Reform Should Be Geared Towards Parents, Not Business
Rex Tillerson
CEO of Exxon Mobil
Uses bully tactics to advance Common Core.
CEO of Exxon Mobil
Uses bully tactics to advance Common Core.
By Emmett McGroarty & Jane Robbins
Sometimes a combatant in an ideological struggle says something that is refreshing, if disturbing, in its honesty. Such a declaration came recently from Billy Canary, president of the Business Council of Alabama. In explaining why legislators should embrace the Common Core, Mr. Canary said, “The business community is by far the biggest consumer of the product created by our education system.”
How revealing. In 17 words, Mr. Canary encapsulated the education philosophy underlying the national Common Core standards. The education system does not exist to develop citizens fully capable of exercising their liberties and directing government. It does not exist to help children understand others – something that is critical to professionals, entrepreneurs, and all who seek an upward trajectory in life and career. Rather, it is an assembly line spitting out “products.” Those “products” are not unique individuals, but rather cogs in a managed economic machine. And the educational process should be controlled not by the parents, but by the largest “consumer” of the “products” – Big Business.
Mr. Canary’s comment is not an isolated muttering. It echoes the view of Allan Golston, president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s United States program, which has poured an estimated$173.5 million into promoting the Common Core.
In a flailing attempt to secure its human product, a Big Business cabal, spearheaded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable launched a national advertising blitz targeted at Republicans who might be listening too much to parents. This is nothing new. To save Common Core, Big Business has already tried high-powered lobbying and massive advertising, and made Education Reform Should Be Geared Towards Parents, Not Business | Truth in American Education: