Thursday, December 5, 2013

Weingarten: Common Core Rollout "Toxic" | RealClearPolitics

Weingarten: Common Core Rollout "Toxic" | RealClearPolitics:

Weingarten: Common Core Rollout "Toxic"

By Adam O'Neal - December 4, 2013
Photo by Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor 
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten spoke on a wide range of issues -- from the troubled implementation of Common Core education standards to bullying -- Wednesday morning at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.
Asked about her previous comment that Common Core implementation is going worse than the Affordable Care Act rollout, Weingarten said she isn’t “a big believer in blame” but clarified that her objections stem from a lack of public involvement in the process.
“The public wasn’t involved. Parents weren’t involved. The districts weren’t involved. … It became toxic,” she said of implementing the academic benchmarks -- which she supports -- that spell out the skills students should have at each grade level.
Weingarten also delivered a pointed defense of public employee pensions in Detroit after being asked about a court ruling Tuesday allowing the city to file for bankruptcy. She slammed trickle-down economics and austerity measures and suggested that Wall Street banks, not unions, are largely


Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/12/04/weingarten_common_core_rollout_toxic_120852.html#ixzz2mdcRfXoQ
Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter