The business leaders of Louisiana are strong supporters of the Common Core.
They believe it will prepare students to be competitors in the global marketplace.
They expect it will strengthen their knowledge of STEM subjects.
They believe it will have a dramatic power to transform every part of the education system.
They see it as the key to future prosperity.
I am not sure they really know anything about the Common Core, but they feel very strongly that it will work, even though it has never been tried anywhere.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Do you think they believe what they are spouting or just parroting what “someone else” told them to say?
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Business leaders prefer tough talk from the top which promises the latest disciplne regime for the disorderly bottom on how to become the kind of people business wants to hire. Such jawboning from the policy-princes at the top puts the large mass of folks under them on the defensive, targets the mass of society as the problem needing correction, the majority must explain themselves, apologize for umpteen things they do wrong, and blame themselves for their own unequal conditions in a society represented as democratic, fair, and open. This discursive waterfall from the top comprises no real debate among parties, no level playing field rhetorically or politically. Big money has the biggest voice which it uses as a tool to shape public discussion about what is wrong and what is needed, while big populations certainly have the most feet, which finally matters when they decide to march or occupy.
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You are absolutely correct, Ira.
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Great analysis of the psychology behind this. They are blowhards with a lot of money and connections. They cannot handle informed parents and teachers as teachers don’t in general know much about what is happening. They cannot handle the facts put right in their face in public. In L.A. in the world of transportation we organized, we stopped $90 billion, $300 billion with interest, in less than three weeks and less than $25,000. The 4th bill presented this year was to lower the percentage to pass transportation bonds was from 2/3 to 55% as they had just done with school construction bonds. They then put up multiple legislation on other subjects to lower the passage rate. The blowback this last year against the lowering to 55% was so much that all the legislation has been taken off of the table. This was because a group came together which no politician had ever thought possible and we know politics and all used our skills to inform the public and operate in the smartest political way we knew collectively to do. You have just seen Zimmer and Ratliff elected to the LAUSD board against big money. Not an accident. Careful thinking and bold action, some behind the lines. Marshall Tuck is no longer CEO of PLAS Mayor Villaraigosa’s schools which are a total failure. Once again, no accident. Information in public, they lied, they are caught in public, credibility is out the door. When people have documented facts in hand with what they know on the ground you have a dangerous knowledgeable dedicated group. If they do not each have the knowledge it is worthless. This is the best part of Zimmer’s Resolution on the Parent Trigger. Parents are to be knowledgeable of their options before they vote and the vote will be according to the law and regulations which if any one read them are clear.
The billionaires hold the money. The people hold the vote. It is up to the people while they still have a vote to actually use it in their own best interest finally.
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