Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/8/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Charter school board may get rare perk – pay | The Sacramento Bee

Charter school board may get rare perk – pay | The Sacramento Bee: Charter school board may get rare perk – payCharter schools, unlike big school districts, don’t usually pay their board members. But trustees of a single charter school in Del Paso Heights will start receiving $600 a month if a proposal to amend the school’s bylaws gets final approval.Highlands Community Charter School, approved la

by mike simpson / 8min 

CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots Windy City Teachers

Windy City Teachers: Tales of Urban Reform: CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots: CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots Windy City TeachersCPS teachers and staff recently received the following email:"Dear Colleagues,The first day of school for students is Tuesday, September 8 and we need your help to get the word out.There are several ways to participate in our Back-to-Schoo

by mike simpson / 2h 

Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacher - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacher - StamfordAdvocate: Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacherA friend of mine had a priceless reaction to the specious claim by education reformers that our children need standardized tests so parents can know how they are doing in school. He laughed and said that in 20 years of parent conferences no teacher ev

by mike simpson / 3h 

NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison Potential | deutsch29

NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison Potential | deutsch29: NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison PotentialOn August 07, 2015, NPR released this piece concerning setting the cut scores for the PARCC tests that students took in the spring.NPR makes this statement:…Until last year, it was all but impossible to compare students across state lines. Not anymore.This is not true.

by mike simpson / 4h 

solidaridad: Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law

solidaridad: Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law: Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school lawThere is a small grass-roots group that has been working diligently to create a ballot proposition to repeal the charter school laws. While a seemingly daunting task, there might no

by mike simpson / 6h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The fall of Chancellor Wise

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The fall of Chancellor Wise: The fall of Chancellor Wise Asked if she was taking the fall for the Board of Trustees, Wise said, “no,” she was sharing the responsibility. -- Illinois Public Media, September 04, 2014Phyllis Wise has been forced to resign from her $549,069/yr. job as University of Illinois Chancellor. I say, good riddance to you Chancellor Wise and may

by mike simpson / 6h 

White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aide - The Washington Post

White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aide - The Washington Post: White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aideThis can’t be a tweet that Jeb Bush is going to like.Daniel Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Obama for strategy and communications, expressed the White House’s gratitude to the for

by mike simpson / 6h 

SKrashen: CAN ACCESS BALANCE THE EFFECT OF POVERTY?

SKrashen: August 2015: Webinar Presentation 4CAN ACCESS BALANCE THE EFFECT OF POVERTY?Predictors of NAEP grade 4, 2007, 51 statespredictorsbetatPPoverty-0.727.420Access0.531.620.055r2 = .63Access = bks/student in school libraries, circulation in public librariesPredictors of PIRLS:Predictors of the reading test: PIRLS 2006predictorPpoverty-0.410.005independent reading in school0.160.14library: 50

by mike simpson / 6h 

Public Schools to Teachers: Run Your Class on Fear or Get Fired - The Daily Beast

Public Schools to Teachers: Run Your Class on Fear or Get Fired - The Daily Beast: Public Schools to Teachers: Run Your Class on Fear or Get FiredAs part of a burgeoning new public school program called “No Nonsense Nurturing” teachers are required to wear earpieces. They’re reminded to be less enthusiastic and “expect 100 percent compliance.” And in at least one high profile case, the teachers wh

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teachers pose some pointed questions for next GOP debate - The Washington Post

Teachers pose some pointed questions for next GOP debate - The Washington Post: Teachers pose some pointed questions for next GOP debateRepublican presidential candidates from left, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and John Kasich take the stage for the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena

by mike simpson / 7h 

Major charter school expansion in the works for L.A. Unified students - LA Times

Major charter school expansion in the works for L.A. Unified students - LA Times: Major charter school expansion in the works for L.A. Unified studentsA Prominent local education foundation is discussing a major expansion of charter schools in Los Angeles aimed at boosting academic achievement for students at the lowest performing campuses.Details of the project are not yet fully clear. But charte

by mike simpson / 7h 

Did Jeb Bush pass the first school voucher program in the nation? - Business Insider

Did Jeb Bush pass the first school voucher program in the nation? - Business Insider: We fact-checked Jeb Bush's claim that he launched America's first-ever statewide voucher programAt last night's Republican presidential debate, K-12 education made its way onto the agenda with a question posed to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) about his support for the Common Core.Bush deflected an answer about

by mike simpson / 7h 

Carol Burris, former LI principal, takes post with education advocacy group | Newsday

Carol Burris, former LI principal, takes post with education advocacy group | Newsday: Former LI principal Carol Burris takes post with education advocacy groupnetworkforpubliceducation.org/Carol Burris, former principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, has been named executive director of The Network for Public Education's NPE Fund, through which she will advocate for public schools

by mike simpson / 7h 

Georgia’s Problem with Students with Behavioral Disabilities is Everyone’s Problem

Georgia’s Problem with Students with Behavioral Disabilities is Everyone’s Problem: Georgia’s Problem with Students with Behavioral Disabilities is Everyone’s Problem How does one teach a student who shows up at school angry, defiant and/or sullen and depressed, who might hear voices—who acts so atypical that there is worry they might lash out at other students or hurt themselves? When they throw

by mike simpson / 8h 

CTU's Lewis Threatens Strike After Contract Talks Rebooted by CPS - River North - DNAinfo.com Chicago

CTU's Lewis Threatens Strike After Contract Talks Rebooted by CPS - River North - DNAinfo.com Chicago: CTU's Lewis Threatens Strike After Contract Talks Rebooted by CPSRIVER NORTH — The president of the Chicago Teachers Union threatened a strike Friday after Chicago Public Schools abruptly rebooted talks on a contract extension.CTU President Karen Lewis said teachers could take a strike vote at an

by mike simpson / 8h 

Black Parents Should Opt Their Children Out of High Stakes Testing | Black Agenda Report

Black Parents Should Opt Their Children Out of High Stakes Testing | Black Agenda Report: Black Parents Should Opt Their Children Out of High Stakes Testinghigh stakes testingA Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen FordAs usual, the Black Misleadership Class is on the wrong side of democracy, urging Blacks to submit to a high stakes testing regime that is designed to fail Black st

by mike simpson / 8h 

Sacramento Integrity Project | Open Governenment Ordinance

Sacramento Integrity Project | Open Governenment Ordinance:  Open Government Ordinance – Make City Hall More Transparent and AccessibleOpenness in government strengthens democracy, promotes the delivery of efficient and effective services to the public, and contributes to better policy. There are three core elements of Open Government: transparency, participation, and collaboration. Open Governmen

by mike simpson / 8h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Key to Great Teaching is Finding the Genius in Every Child

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Key to Great Teaching is Finding the Genius in Every Child: The Key to Great Teaching is Finding the Genius in Every ChildAfter 50 years of teaching , my greatest accomplishment has been persuading my students that their voice matters, giving them the opportunity to have their voice heard, and helping them sharpen their means of expression, be it in written or spoken fo

by mike simpson / 8h 

YESTERDAY

Study of brain scans shows impact of poverty on academic achievement | EdSource

Study of brain scans shows impact of poverty on academic achievement | EdSource: Study of brain scans shows impact of poverty on academic achievementLess gray matter in key areas of the brain could account for as much as 20 percent of the achievement gap between children living in poverty and those who are not, according to a new study.The results of brain scans of 389 typically developing childre

by mike simpson / 20h 

Those State-level Common Core “Reviews”: Useful for Fashioning “Public Support” | deutsch29

Those State-level Common Core “Reviews”: Useful for Fashioning “Public Support” | deutsch29: Those State-level Common Core “Reviews”: Useful for Fashioning “Public Support”The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Louisiana and elsewhere are now “under review.”This seems that the new in-thing to do in CCSS states. According to Politico’sMorning Education on July 31, 2015, Arkansas, Mississippi, Lo

by mike simpson / 20h 

“Talking Crap” Focus on Teacher Bathroom Breaks Misses the Point on Problems Impacting Teachers | gadflyonthewallblog

“Talking Crap” Focus on Teacher Bathroom Breaks Misses the Point on Problems Impacting Teachers | gadflyonthewallblog: “Talking Crap” Focus on Teacher Bathroom Breaks Misses the Point on Problems Impacting TeachersBy Yohuru Williams and Steven SingerNearly 18 years ago in his 1997 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton urged Americans to prioritize education. He suggested beginning wit

by mike simpson / 22h 

Rightwing Groups Sponsor GOP Debate in New Hampshire | Diane Ravitch's blog

Rightwing Groups Sponsor GOP Debate in New Hampshire | Diane Ravitch's blog: Rightwing Groups Sponsor GOP Debate in New Hampshire This is something new. Two rightwing, pro-voucher advocacy groups aresponsoring a debate on August 19 among Republican hopefuls in Londonderry, Néw Hampshire.In the past, presidential debates have been sponsored by the League of Women Voters or national television chann

by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/7/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORM“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity: “Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarningOn August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and communities across the Gulf Coast. The destruction and displacement that followed the storm crea

by mike simpson / 23h

Charter school board may get rare perk – pay | The Sacramento Bee

Charter school board may get rare perk – pay | The Sacramento Bee:

Charter school board may get rare perk – pay

Charter schools, unlike big school districts, don’t usually pay their board members. But trustees of a single charter school in Del Paso Heights will start receiving $600 a month if a proposal to amend the school’s bylaws gets final approval.

Highlands Community Charter School, approved last year by Twin Rivers Unified, offers students older than 22 an opportunity to earn high school diplomas, learn vocations and improve English skills. The publicly funded school serves 350 students, including many ex-offenders.

Galt Joint Union school district, by comparison, educates about 3,800 K-8 students. Its trustees are paid $180 a month. Twin Rivers Unified trustees are paid $750 a month to serve their 28,000 students. Both districts offer health benefits to board members.

The California Education Code allows school districts to pay their trustees monthly stipends based on enrollment. School boards can elect to take less, or add up to 5 percent to the base amount. These payments often come with medical and dental benefits.

Charter schools are governed by state nonprofit rules and their own bylaws, which offer more latitude.

“I’m not aware of other charter schools that pay stipends,” said Emily Bertelli, spokeswoman for the California Charter School Association. The charter advocacy organization doesn’t recommend stipends, she said.

Leaders of Highlands Community Charter School say the payments are justified because the board members work eight to 16 hours each week. “It (the board) is really active and really runs this place,” said Murdock Smith, who recently stepped down from the school board to become the school’s part-time chief financial officer.

Holding a seat on the charter’s board is demanding because the school has grown rapidly, recently adding four off-site classrooms, said Ward Allen, president of the nonprofit corporation that runs the charter school. The passage of Proposition 47, which reduced penalties for some crimes, has meant more people are being released from prison and are calling the school searching for job training.

“We’re on the verge of being discovered,” Allen said. “We are basically seeing the flood start, and I don’t know how quickly it is going to abate. I think it will be busy, busy year.”

Locally, neither Fortune Charter Schools, California Montessori Project nor Aspire Public Schools – three of the region’s largest charter school systems – pay stipends to their board members.

“Board stipends are pretty unusual for charters, but they are not unheard of,” said Karl Yoder, chief financial officer for Delta Managed Solutions. His company offers human resources and other support services to 35 California charter schools, including Highlands Community Charter.

Yoder said only three to four of the charter schools he works for offer stipends to trustees. “What we recommend is a stipend that covers the incidental costs of being a board member,” he said.

The proposed Highlands Community Charter School bylaw amendment also would allow for paying the person acting as the Twin Rivers Unified board liaison – currently Linda Fowler – $600 a week for lobbying efforts.

The Highlands board has been weighing the bylaw revision for more than a month. It tentatively voted to adopt the revised bylaws on June 27, pending review from the school’s attorney. The item has been put on the agenda twice since then, but no action was taken at either meeting. The matter continues to be under legal review, said Highlands attorney Thomas Cregger.

The move to pay stipends to the charter board and to pay the Twin Rivers liaison is among the controversial decisions recently made by officials at Highlands Community.

Last month, the FPPC announced it will investigate whether Fowler, who also serves as president of the Twin Rivers Unified school board, violated conflict-of-interest rules by accepting thousands of dollars in consulting fees from Highlands Community Charter, which she helped establish. Fowler is retired from the state Department of Justice, where she was an investigative auditor.

Highlands paid Fowler’s consulting firm $13,000 in October to pursue a federal startup grant before canceling the contract when the school’s principal questioned its propriety.

Every five years, the Twin Rivers Unified school board has the power to decide whether to renew the charter of Highlands Community Charter.

Diana Lambert: 916-321-1090, @dianalambert

BOARD STIPENDS

State law sets the base amount a school board member can be paid monthly on district enrollment. School boards can elect to take less, or add up to 5 percent to the base amount. Charter schools are governed by state nonprofit laws and their own bylaws.

Enrollment / Base pay

60,000+ / $1,500

25,000-60,000 / $750

10,000-25,000 / $400

1,000-10,000 / $240

150-1,000 / $120

150 or less / $60

Charter school board may get rare perk – pay | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article30511734.html#storylink=cpy

CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots Windy City Teachers

Windy City Teachers: Tales of Urban Reform: CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots:

CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots Windy City Teachers

CPS teachers and staff recently received the following email:

"Dear Colleagues,

The first day of school for students is Tuesday, September 8 and we need your help to get the word out.

There are several ways to participate in our Back-to-School campaign, including the annual Bud Billiken Day Parade on Saturday August 8. We want CPS to have a major presence at this event, so please consider volunteering your time for a portion of the day.  Visit cps.edu/b2svolunteering to see your options and to register.

You can also support our Back-to-School efforts by phone banking (i.e. calling CPS families to make sure they know when school begins). If you are interested in this option, please email face@cps.edu.

Finally, you can support our students by helping them start the school year with the classroom supplies they need.  Many children will arrive at school on September 8 without adequate supplies. To purchase school supply kits for these students, or to find out how you can donate supplies to our schools, visit cps.edu/supplythefuture."

CPS teachers and staff also received the following flyer reminding us of free meals provided by CPS:

"LunchStop serves free, healthy meals at 40 outdoor CPS locations!  Any child 1-18 years can receive a free meal every Monday through Friday from June 28th to August 28th (children do not have to be CPS students)."

Although Rahm has claimed that "CPS continues to set new standards of excellence," we disagree.

According to the city, CPS parents are unable to:

Windy City Teachers: Tales of Urban Reform: CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots:

Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacher - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacher - StamfordAdvocate:

Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacher

A friend of mine had a priceless reaction to the specious claim by education reformers that our children need standardized tests so parents can know how they are doing in school. He laughed and said that in 20 years of parent conferences no teacher ever felt the need to pull out his children’s standardized tests to provide an accurate picture of how well they were learning.

Parents have relied on teachers’ assessments to gauge their children’s progress and most have pretty much ignored their children’s standardized test scores. For decades, this approach has served parents and students well. Recent research shows that non-standardized, human assessments of student learning are superior to standardized tests of all kinds.

I have written about the voluminous evidence showing that a high school GPA is the best predictor of college success, and that the SAT and ACT, by contrast, are poor predictors. (http://bit.ly/1K7CNzG)

Even standardized college placement tests, tests ostensibly designed to measure “college readiness,” fail miserably at that task — with real and damaging consequences for students.

College remediation is often used as a weapon by education reformers. Overstating college remediation rates was one of the tactics used by Arne Duncan to foment hysteria about the supposedly sorry state of America’s public schools and justify imposing the Common Core and its accompanying tests nationwide. As retired award-winning New York principal Carol Burris has written, while Duncan and his allies claimed that the college remediation rate is 40 percent, data from the National Center on Education Statistics show that the actual percentage is 20 percent.

Exaggeration is not the only problem with college remediation. Many of the students placed in remedial classes in college do not even belong there.

Judith Scott-Clayton of Columbia’s Teachers’ College and her colleagues examined tens of thousands of college entrants and found that one-quarter to one-third of those placed in remedial courses based on standardized placement tests were mis-assigned. These students wrongly placed in remedial classes could have passed a college- level course with a B or better. Moreover, when students are mis-assigned to remedial courses, the likelihood of them Wendy Lecker: Want to know how a student is doing? Ask a teacher - StamfordAdvocate:

NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison Potential | deutsch29

NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison Potential | deutsch29:

NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison Potential

On August 07, 2015, NPR released this piece concerning setting the cut scores for the PARCC tests that students took in the spring.

NPR makes this statement:

…Until last year, it was all but impossible to compare students across state lines. Not anymore.

This is not true. States have been required to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).

What is interesting is that the Fordham Institute’s grading of state standards (and finding in favor of Common Core even though it did not give Common Core a higher rating than all state standards) demonstrates no connection between their ratings of state standards and NAEP scores.

So now, we have PARCC, and according to NPR, we have a number of individuals meeting to “nail down cut scores for those 5 million tests.”

If anyone tells you that PARCC or any other standardized test is by definition “objective,” don’t buy it.

Instead, believe what Center for Public Education director Patte Barth says in that NPR piece:

“Establishing cut scores is part science. It’s part art. But it’s also part political.”

I wonder which part dominates.

Tough call, eh?

So, it seems, this group in Denver is going to make sure that states cannot produce an “illusion of improvement.” What is missing, however, is any established connection between PARCC, it’s Denver-ballroom-basement-meeting-set cut scores, and previous tests used by the states.

My teaching colleague, Herb Bassett, observed as much in a FB posting of the NPR link:

Explains how a committee is in process of determining which students passed 

NPR Is Gaga about PARCC and Its State-comparison Potential | deutsch29:

solidaridad: Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law

solidaridad: Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law:

Join Voices Against Privatizing Public Education's efforts to repeal the California charter school law

There is a small grass-roots group that has been working diligently to create a ballot proposition to repeal the charter school laws. While a seemingly daunting task, there might not ever be another chance to do this before the privatizers eliminate public schools altogether (Eli Broad just announced his plans to cut LAUSD's public schools in in half). The group has an online petition that now has over 600 signatures. They also have a facebook group. Both of which are linked here:

Ballot Initiative to REPEAL the CA Charter School Act of 1992

Voices Against Privatizing Public Education

Most importantly, they have picked up a handfull of key labor leaders and organizations:

• AFT Local 6161 (Palomar Faculty Federation)
• North County Labor Alliance
• Escondido Public School Advocates
• Bill Freeman- NEA Board member for California
• Alita Blanc- United Educators of San Francisco

The coalition is working hard to get several more organizations on board, including local Democratic party clubs in several large cities. Please consider getting involved, and perhaps even endorsing theefforts of the group.

Professor Wayne Au: The Opt Out Movement

Antioch University Friends of Education Speaker Series - Wayne Au will talk about various issues with high-stakes testing and organizing against the tests. Au is an Associate Professor in the Education Program at the University of Washington, Bothell, and he is an editor for the social justice magazine, Rethinking Schools. Most recently, he co-authored the article, "Rethinking schools: Enacting a vision for social justice within US education" for Critical Studies in Education and co-edited Pencils Down: Rethinking High-Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools.

Professor Wayne Au: The Opt Out Movement

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The fall of Chancellor Wise

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The fall of Chancellor Wise:

The fall of Chancellor Wise

 Asked if she was taking the fall for the Board of Trustees, Wise said, “no,” she was sharing the responsibility. -- Illinois Public Media, September 04, 2014

Phyllis Wise has been forced to resign from her $549,069/yr. job as University of Illinois Chancellor. I say, good riddance to you Chancellor Wise and may the rest of the Board of Trustees go with you. You have helped disgrace the name of a once-great state university system and made me ashamed to call it my alma mater. I received both my masters and Ph.D. from UIC.



Wise takes the fall but it was the Board of Trustees that violated the basic principles of academic freedom and the First Amendment when they rescinded their job offer to professor Steven Salaita over his controversial posts (critical of Israel's attack on Gaza) on Twitter. Rather than stick up for principle, the cowardly chancellor and trustees caved under pressure from a handful of wealthy and powerful donors who threatened to withhold their contributions if Salaita was hired.



This of course, is not the first time the U of I trustees have violated the rights of faculty members and the principles of academic freedom. I'm thinking back to 2010 when my friend and UIC colleague Bill Ayers was denied emeritus status by Board Chairman Christopher Kennedy who was bitter about an obscure Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The fall of Chancellor Wise:

White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aide - The Washington Post

White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aide - The Washington Post:

White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aide

This can’t be a tweet that Jeb Bush is going to like.

Daniel Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Obama for strategy and communications, expressed the White House’s gratitude to the former two-term Florida governor on Thursday, the day of the GOP presidential contender debates were held in Cleveland. For what? For supporting the Common Core State Standards and even helping them to persuade states to adopt them.

Here’s the tweet:

Bush has been on the defensive for some time over his long-time support for the Common Core, a set of math and English Language Arts standards that most states adopted several years ago. When he became the governor of Florida in 1999, he became a pioneer in the corporate education reform movement that used student standardized test scores to hold schools “accountable,” promoted vouchers and charter schools, and pushed to change the way teachers were credentialed. When he left office in 2007, he became a reform evangelist around the country, promoting his “Florida Formula” while advising states on how to adopt the same reforms.

[Here’s what Jeb Bush really did as governor to public education in Florida]

He was an early and consistent Core supporter, even as other Republicans began to turn against the initiative, which had the support of the Obama administration. (While the administration did not write the standards, it did make adopting common standards a requirement of states wanting to win federal Race to the Top money and/or a waiver from the most onerous aspects of No Child Left Behind. The administration also provided some $360 million in federal funds to two multi-state consortia to develop new Common Core standards tests.)

A few years ago Bush had no problem speaking harshly about Common Core critics. For example, in October 2013, he told an audience at his Foundation for Excellence in Education’s annual conference:

“What I want to hear from them is more than just opposition. I want to hear their solutions for the hodgepodge of dumbed-down state standards that have created group mediocrity in our schools…. Criticisms and conspiracy theories are easy attention grabbers. Solutions are hard work.”

After he became a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, he began to offer far more nuanced support for the Core and was much kinder to its critics. In May 2015, he told Fox News host Megyn Kelly:

Common Core means a lot of things to different people, so they could be right based on what’s in front of them. I respect people 

White House was ‘grateful’ to Jeb Bush for helping with Common Core, says former Obama aide - The Washington Post: