The False Equivalence between Common Core Detractors and Defenders

Posted on June 14, 2014
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Something has been bothering me lately about the way defenders and detractors are afforded equal time in an attempt to artificially provide some sort of “balance” between these two groups. This is a disingenuous attempt by some in the mainstream media to force parity into an issue where there really is none. Common Core was portrayed as a perfect solution to a [manufactured] education crises. Defenders have tried multiple strategies to defend Common Core, switching fluidly between completely contradictory defenses not based in reality – without being called out for their fickle and fictitious fluctuations. (say that 5 times fast.)
For example. . .Common Core was first portrayed at an internationally benchmarked set of standards that would surpass anything in the world in terms of “rigor”. When challenged on this point, to show even the existence of any international standards, let alone that these standards would surpass them, defenders of Common Core switched arguments without many in the media recognizing this as complete bullshit. When someone makes up a complete lie, and you call them on it, their credibility should be called into question and their other arguments should be considered suspect. That did not happen on this issue or any of these other points I will mention.
The next argument was that the existing standards in every state were complete crap and while not internationally benchmarked (because there are no international benchmarks, and because these standards do not surpass those of even modest countries like Sweden and Finland, or even small US state’s like Massachusetts, let alone the entire international community) these standards were better than all existing standards in all places. To defend this claim, defenders of Common Core selected individual standards from individual grades and compared them to another grade and standard and made the gigantic false equivalency argument. They claimed that because of this small case (which in many cases were actually completely backwards as in the case of the example provided by a Common Core Lobbyist named Blogger Ryan Booth – political director of the Republican Party – that appeared on a recent LPB Common Core advertisement paid for by Exxon masquerading as a real debate – that our existing standards did not have children learning their The False Equivalence between Common Core Detractors and Defenders | Crazy Crawfish's Blog: