Reject Common Core, but Don’t Reject Shared Knowledge
Ted Cruz opposes Common Core, according to his website. He thinks every child deserves a quality education and breezily applauds “school choice.” Rand Paul wants to abolish the Common Core, and wants more variety in education choices. Neither seems to make education a priority.
Note to Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and other conservative candidates: voters want to hear how you are going to fix our public schools. You’ve told us what’s wrong with Common Core, but you have failed to offer an alternative. This is vital because promising better schools might help attract Hispanic voters, and also because improved education is essential for our country’s growth and health. You cannot claim to be fiscally responsible while ignoring the failure of our schools to deliver capable graduates.
Today, a tragedy is unfolding. The country has become so convulsed over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that the education reform movement risks losing momentum. Conservatives are especially furious about Common Core. They see the proposed establishment of the fact-based education standards as tantamount to a federal takeover of our schools. Never mind that CCSS was developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association.
Never mind that the feds are not allowed by law to create curriculum, and that the CCSS leaves that chore to local communities. The Obama White House unwittingly muddied the water by tying Race to the Top money to adoption of CCSS in a small way, fueling the “Washington-takeover” narrative, and the opposition took off.
We now have a remarkable coalition between the far right and the far left that may well torpedo the Common Core. Though nearly all states adopted the standards beginning in 2010, some, like Oklahoma and South Carolina, have more recently withdrawn from using the CCSS. More will likely follow.
The antipathy from the right is philosophical; they dislike Big Government and Big Business, and see both trying to influence local schools. In addition to the Obama administration, the Chamber of Commerce has backed the CCSS, responding to employers worried about a scarcity of educated workers.
The pushback from the left also reflects hostility towards the meddling of wealthy business tycoonslike Bill Gates, whose foundation has been the principle funder of the standards More important, left-leaning critics of CC line up behind those predictably opposed to data-driven measurements of student achievement. In this column put teachers’ unions, who do not like evaluations, because not every teacher will pass muster. In a 2014 survey, only 46% of teachers supported CC, down from 76 percent the year before.
Critics on both sides of the political spectrum note little evidence that standards actually raise performance, a reasonable concern. Parents are caught up in the debate, hoping their kids will emerge with better skills and knowledge, but they’re unhappy with what many view as excessive testing that has shown students underachieving. Also, some of the teaching methods introduced by states incorporating CCSS are downright whacky.
The Left’s persistent remedy for our education shortcomings is to throw more money into our schools, even though we spend more than any nation on earth, and see little result.
Conservatives have not yet offered up a solution, save talk of school choice, which is like being in favor of a secure border. Both appeal, but the roadmap is invisible. Voters should demand more from conservatives. Those on the right celebrate self-sufficiency and the freedoms that allow individual success. But, the economic and social mobility that has been a hallmark of our country’s past Reject Common Core, but Don’t Reject Shared Knowledge - Yahoo Finance:
