A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core
In recent days, education activists have become incensed with Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chief executive, for remarks he made about public schools that were part of a story about the Common Core State Standards in Fortune magazine.
The article, titled “Business Gets Schooled” and written by Peter Elkind, describes how involved some leaders of big business entities were in promoting the Core standards in recent standards. It has long been known that Microsoft founder Bill Gates funded the creation and promotion of the Core through his foundation, but the extent of involvement by some other business leaders was not as well known.
After describing an unsuccessful effort by Gates to persuade Charles Koch to stop funding conservative groups opposing the Core, Elkind writes:
This extraordinary tête-à-tête is just one example of how the war over Common Core has personally engaged—and bedeviled—some of America’s most powerful business leaders. Hugely controversial, it has thrust executives into the uncomfortable intersection of business and politics.In truth, Common Core might not exist without the corporate community. The nation’s business establishment has been clamoring for more rigorous education standards—ones that would apply across the entire nation — for years. It views them as desperately needed to prepare America’s future workforce and to bolster its global competitiveness. One measure of the deep involvement of corporate leaders: The Common Core standards were drafted by determining the skills that businesses (and colleges) need and then working backward to decide what students should learn.Organizations such as the Business Roundtable have devoted considerable effort to the initiative. The education chair for that association of CEOs, Exxon Mobil XOM -0.97% chief Rex Tillerson, has played a particularly prominent role. A stern, commanding figure with an Old Testament glare and a chewy Texas drawl, Tillerson is an unlikely person to lead a campaign of persuasion. (Never a fan of the press, he declined to speak to Fortune for this article.)
Tillerson gave a number of speeches promoting the Core — and he lobbied policymakers in states to stick with the Core when some began to back away A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core - The Washington Post: