For Immediate Release January 26 2015
From: David Spring M. Ed., Elizabeth Hanson, M. Ed., & Susan DuFresne BA.
Coalition to Protect our Public Schools
From: David Spring M. Ed., Elizabeth Hanson, M. Ed., & Susan DuFresne BA.
Coalition to Protect our Public Schools
RE: Washington State Democratic Party Passed Resolution Opposing Common Core
On Saturday, January 24 2015, the Washington State Democratic Party Central Committee became the first State Democratic Party in the nation to pass a resolution opposing Common Core State Standards (CCSS). A copy of this resolution is provided at the end of this press release. Speaking in favor of the resolution to oppose Common Core at the Washington State Democratic Party meeting on Saturday were Sarajane Siegfriedt, the chair of the King County Legislative Action Committee and member of the State Resolutions Committee and State Committee Woman from the 46th Legislative District Democrats in North Seattle, Brian Gunn, State Committee Man from the 31st Legislative District Democrats in Auburn and also Chair of the Washington State Progressive Caucus and Richard May, State Committee Man from the 42nd Legislative District Democrats in Bellingham. All spoke passionately about the need for parents to maintain local control over their public schools through their locally elected school board.
The vote of more than 200 members of the Washington State Democratic Party was overwhelmingly in favor of the resolution – passing by a margin of more than two to one. Previously, the Washington State Republican Party had also passed a resolution opposing Common Core by a huge margin. It is rare that rank and file members of both political parties find themselves in agreement on an issue as important as local control over our public schools. It is now likely that a bill will be introduced in the Washington State legislature to withdraw Washington from the Common Core standards, tests and curriculum.
Common Core was hastily adopted in Washington State in 2010 before the standards were even available for public review. Now that CCSS has been published, parents and teachers are appalled at how poorly these standards were written and even more appalled that the standards are copyrighted and cannot be changed!
Despite these glaring drawbacks, this spring 2015, our students in Washington State will be subjected to a Common Core test called SBA – an unfair test which will deliberately label as failures two thirds of the students who take this test. Unfairly labeling young students in the Third Grade as failures is a form of child abuse. As parents and teachers, we ask the Washington State legislature to honor the will of the overwhelming majority of rank and file members of the Washington State Democratic and Republican parties – and withdraw Washington State from Common Core.
For more information, feel free to contact us or visit our website:
http://coalitiontoprotectourpublicschools.org/
Sincerely,
David Spring M. Ed., Elizabeth Hanson, M. Ed., & Susan DuFresne BA.
springforschools@aol.com Coalition to Protect our Public Schools
Resolution Opposing Common Core
Passed by the Washington State Democratic Party on Saturday January 24 2015
WHEREAS the copyrighted (and therefore unchangeable) Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of controversial top-down K-12 academic standards that were promulgated by wealthy private interests without research-based evidence of validity and are developmentally inappropriate in the lowest grades; and
WHEREAS, as a means of avoiding the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment prohibition against federal meddling in state education policy, two unaccountable private trade associations--the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)--have received millions of dollars in funding from the Gates Foundation and others to create the CCSS; and
WHEREAS the U.S. Department of Education improperly pressured state legislatures into adopting the Common Core State Standards and high-stakes standardized testing based on them as a condition of competing for federal Race to the Top (RTTT) stimulus funds that should have been based on need; and
WHEREAS as a result of Washington State Senate Bill 6669, which passed the State legislature on March 11, 2010, the Office of the Superintendent of Instruction (OSPI) adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS) on July 20, 2011; and
WHEREAS this adoption effectively transfers control over public school standardized testing from locally elected school boards to the unaccountable corporate interests that control the CCSS and who stand to profit substantially; and
WHEREAS the Washington State Constitution also calls for public education to be controlled by the State of Washington through our elected State legislature, our elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction and our elected local school boards; and
WHEREAS implementation of CCSS will cost local school districts hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for standardized computer-based tests, new technology, new curricula and teacher training at a time when Washington is already insufficiently funding K-12 Basic Education without proven benefit to students; and WHEREAS some states have already withdrawn from CCSS;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we call upon the Washington State legislature and the Superintendent of Public Instruction to withdraw from the CCSS and keep K-12 education student-centered and accountable to the people of Washington State.
Submitted by Sarajane Siegfriedt, Resolutions Chair,
Passed by the 46th District Democrats October 16, 2014.
Passed by the Washington Democratic Party Central Committee January 24 2015