United Way’s Common Core Promotion Costs It a Louisiana District
On November 12, 2015, the St.Tammany Parish School Board (Louisiana) voted unanimously to discontinue its employee payroll deduction campaign for the United Way. Included in the concern that United Way had become “too political” was the national organization’s decision to actively promote the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
To date, United Way has accepted $2.4 million from the Gates Foundation expressly for supporting CCSS.
In June 2014, the Gates Foundation paid United Way Worldwide (located in Alexandria, Virginia) $1.2 million “to build support for the Common Core State Standards by engaging stakeholders and community leaders nationally and locally.”
United Way Worldwide included advocacy for CCSS in its Policy Agenda for the 112th Congress (January 03, 2011 to January 03, 2013):
Common Core StandardsCommon Core State Standards provide a consistent understanding of what students are expected to learn from state to state, across the nation. These standards promote high expectations to fully prepare young people to succeed academically and compete in the global economy.United Way supports federal incentives for states to align standards with college-and-career expectations, through common core or individual state action.
And in its Policy Agenda for the 113th Congress (January 03, 2013 to January 03, 2015):
United Way Supports:Common Core Standards:Incentivizing states to align standards with college-and career expectations, through common core or individual state action, and providing the resources so that the standards can be well implemented in classrooms.
By the time of its Policy Agenda for the 114th Congress (January 03, 2015 to January 03, 2017), United Way Worldwide no longer headlined Common Core and United Way’s Common Core Promotion Costs It a Louisiana District | deutsch29: