Paul Horton teaches history at the University of Chicago Lab School, where President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and Arne Duncan sent (or in the case of the mayor, send) their children. He is a passionate defender of common sense in education and an articulate critic of the current corporate reform movement. As a historian, he understands the nation’s historic commitment to support public education. He also understands that the Obama administration has abandoned any recognition of the historic principle of federalism that limits the U.S. Department of Education’s ability to direct or control curriculum and instruction. This letter was addressed to State Senator Kwame Raoul in Chicago.
State Senator Kwame Raoul
Suite 4000 Chicago, Illinois; 60654
August 6,2013
Dear Senator Raoul,
We know from every measure that the Wilmette-Winnetka, Niles, Hinsdale, and Naperville schools are excellent. They are the highest achieving public schools in the state of Illinois. Their average SAT and ACT scores and the percentage of students enrolled in AP classes, not to mention exemplary performance on AP tests, makes these districts respected by competitive colleges all over the country. Indeed, there is a national competition for graduates of these districts. Why do we need another measure that we cannot afford? Why are we going to pay Pearson Education millions of dollars for products that will force many exemplary schools to lower their standards?
You will see what a massive fraud the Common Core Curriculum is when these schools are forced to lower their standards to teach Common Core and then their achievement will be denigrated by invalid measures designed to make all public schools look bad. When the New York public schools were required to take Pearson Education developed tests this spring, dozens of exemplary schools and districts that have similar profiles to the Illinois public schools mentioned above, received substantially lowered school ratings. The same thing happened in Kentucky last year: scores went down in the best schools, and scores reflected preexisting conditions in underserved schools and communities.
Shame on the public officials of this country for turning their backs on the Northwest Ordinance, a document that precedes the Constitution in American history and law! The Ordinance made an historic commitment to public education. Federal and state governments have turned their backs on public schools because of their dependence on Wall Street funding for political campaigns. How can we allow this to happen?
If Bill Daley is the Democratic nominee for governor and he plans to support the current state school board, I will vote for the Republican candidate if the nominee will do something about Superintendent Koch, Common Core, and the PARCC assessments. Superintendent Koch received paid trips from Pearson Education and the state then hired Pearson to develop its Common Core standardized tests.
I am a life long Democrat whose family has proud connections to the Civil Rights movement in the South. This administration and its operatives like Mayor Emanuel, have all but abandoned the country’s historic commitment to public education. When will an element within the Democratic party of Illinois stand up for common sense in Education?
Senator Raoul, you have stood very bravely in defense of teacher pensions. Can you stand up for the teachers and parents of Illinois, and buck Mayor Emanuel, Secretary Duncan, and the Democrats for Education Reform who seem more interested in attracting Wall Street money to Democratic campaigns in exchange for support of school privatization? Alderman Burns (the President’s local political protégé) will not do so for obvious reasons. I hope that you will consider a run against the plutocrats who currently control the Democratic Party in Illinois. The citizens of Woodlawn where I live are sickened by what is happening to their neighborhood schools. An insurgent candidate for governor could gain the support of disaffected Democrats of many stripes.
All the best,
Paul Horton
History teacher
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yup. Pretty much. I don’t know if this will make a difference, but I told the state Democratic Party I won’t be donating until they start defending public schools.
I didn’t give that much, but what I have is now going to grass roots groups and candidates who support public education.
Chiara it does make a difference…. thank you for all your efforts. I did the same thing; every e mail I send back if it asks me for money today; “I withdraw my support.” I called Elizabeth Warren’ s office twice and said “I withdraw my support for Arne Duncan”. For 4 years I was silent because we had to get health care through but today I refuse to be silent. I called the Governor’s office in New York and I will go to my neice’s wedding in Albany. Every parent there I will tell them to throw out the test scores; they are worthless. It is “snake oil” and the Emperor has no clothes. I don’t give that much either but I have given them shoe leather (I started out ringing doorbells for Paul Tsongas whom I adored. Paul would come to the community college and speak to the faculty and he would say “you staff need to get together to get some attention to improving these facilities.” [They were horrid; the facilities were in a closed VA hospital where mental patients had been quartered for 30 years] I adored Paul and he also brought his young daughters (this was in the 70s) so I personally thanked him. It does make a difference over the long run so stay involved.
Thank you, Chiara! That is exactly what I have been promoting! Love Paul Horton’s letter! perhaps he should consider running for office as well!
Thanks, I am a north Alabama Horton. My grandfather was Ed Super in Lawrence County and my aunt taught for over forty years in Huntsville. We are related to Judge Horton (Scottsboro Boys case) and Myles Horton (Highlander Folk School)
Paul Horton hits the critical points on the Pearson testing monopoly for common core. He does not go far enough to expose the false passing standards and their politicized criteria that assures high student failure rates.
He misses the mark on the common core standards. They are baseline guides. Great schools and teachers have their students learning far beyond those standards. Average schools need to work differently to have all students exceed those standards and weak schools need extensive professional development to invent new collaborative teaching practices that engage all children in deep learning.
The testing model in New York is immoral at its fundamental purpose and invalid in its design. Oppose the testing. Help teachers design curriculum that exceed the CCSS criteria. Help teachers take control of student learning.
i am an independent and tend to lean more toward a conservative vent. We have serious problems in education in America which have persisted for numerous years. There are a plethera of reasons for these problems. I support well-rounded, non-biased, factual education which results in a graduate who will contribute to our great country and is able to enter into the workforce in a job of their chosing and is also able to enjoy the fruits of their hard work.
Due to the control of many teacher unions there have been problems with some poor teachers who have been kept in the classroom or shuttled from one school to another–however i do not think that this should be considered the overriding cause of our difficulties. Nor do I think the TFA breed is the answer!
I agree with this letter in that Common Core Standards are an unvetted, despicable ruse foisted on our education system WHICH DOES TAKE CONTROL AWAY FROM THE LOCAL DISTRICTS AND STATE. Big money and powerful individuals are behind his move. I applaud you for speaking up and sheding some light on this very grave situation. If all goes as planned there will be robots not students, turned out, i.e. human capital to fill what industry decides are the type of skills that are needed.
I do think the more progressive political and well-heeled individuals are also going to skew the education in a direction which is not at all healthy for our country.
I wish you well in this endeavor–it is for all the children and our future and should
not to be used as a partisian issue.
There is no such thing as “non-biased, factual education”.
Except for your statement!!
Dianne: I think you are reading him wrong…. I see a lot of places where “concerned” shares my values for educational futures.
“. . . who will contribute to our great country. . . ”
gawd blessss america (sic)
Concerned, I here you. I am a traditional conservative when it comes to curriculum in particular and I am a frugal householder (out of necessity). You might to look at some of the work done by Jim Stergios at the Pioneer Institute in Boston. He definitely leans “right” but he does it without all the pejorative stuff. Here is an example: Mike Petrilli (Fordham) is gloating in his comments and he flaunts with his statements. For example, he says “Common Core: see if the professional educators can screw that up.” That is the vernacular he publishes; I am sure in person he is more vitriolic. Jim Stergios presents facts, with a right leaning granted, but you can read without the feeling that you have been kicked in the stomach (if you are an educator); Pioneer Institute has a couple of documents I send to my colleagues because there are good points about curriculum and technology and appropriate uses of technology. I will get a reference and post it here. Having a civilized conversation without all the vitriol helps one to think critically and make up your own mind. I don’t like the kind of hatefulness that Sarah Palin does when she stands on the platform and says : “How is that hopey changey thing doing for you now?” And her kids talk just like her (as adolescents will do anyway they don’t need adult role models for that kind of speech). So from people like that (and Mike Petrilli, I have no respect and I won’t listen to anything they say or agree with them on anything. Hostile speech creates a hostile work environment and nothing gets done.
Our Republican governor closed the lab school in Iowa where Paul Horton used to teach. We miss Paul and his many talented colleagues who contributed to education in our state in countless ways. The barbarians are indeed at the gate with their fat wallets and bankrupt ideas.
Thanks Barry, say hello to Becky for me and pass this along to her! All best!
Paul
Barry: I here you; I just want to offer moral support. I worked with two friends to develop a gifted model program using technology in the state of New Hampshire. While 5 of us were in the room the Governor Sununu said “we need to close the science labs because the teachers are just taking that time off.” I couldn’t say anything but I was boiling inside; I went to a public college where we had no labs I guess I could say we virtually had no labs? The professor would stand up in front of 30 students and do an experiment and we were o watch. In spite of that he was a brilliant physics professor (I was proud to get a high mark from him). People like Governor Sununu will never get it but we can’t give up. Governor Sununu wanted a gifted program as a showcase for himself when he retired and that was his only purpose for the gifted study. I think he did show his true colors when he worked with the Romney campaign. Now to get back to your “lab school” (you can see I went off onto a lab tangent) only one University in my state has a lab school and there is a constant struggle as to who should pay for it the city or the state????
It kind of destroys the morale and spirit around the working faculty. There should be lab school arrangements at every site. In the summer we were able to offer a reading clinic for teachers using the one lab school; but for a whole state it is insufficient.
Read error: I should have said only one of the State Universities has a lab school; the private colleges have their own in some cases.
Public Education is being set up to fail so that the “reformers” can swoop in and cry “The system is broken! We have to turn it over to the market! Privatization is the only way to save our students!” It’s just like Noemi Klein described in her book “The Shock Doctrine”.
Yes, I think Frank explains that in his writing “What’s the trouble with Kansas” and his other books. We had a representative in Massachusetts who would say the same thing. They take your funds away then they can point and say you are not doing your job. His name was Father Drinan and he was asked to step down because it was a conflict for a priest to be in the House of Rep…. but I sure appreciated his strong voice on these issues. If he were alive today i think he would know that what is going on is unethical and immoral. We need the Hippocratic oath first do no harm and that is being violated. There is a physicians who wrote “Hippocrates Cried” and he said we need a better understanding of the value of beneficence; i.e., do what is right for your patient (client , student etc).
There are tons of disaffected Democrats. The party is a joke now. They are abusing their federal power to knuckle people under. It has definitely changed my views. The Democratic party has turned into a joke.
Dee/Dee: I always say I don’ t call myself anything but I am fiercely independent with emphasis on the fierce part. I had a girl scout leader who drilled Ayn Rand into our heads so as a typical adolescent I rebelled and I haven’t stopped rebelling. Thank you for your post as you brought back many of the fun smiles I had after Girl Scout gatherings. Just to continue the joke I say I am the only independent in my family and my nephew jokes back to say he is the only socialist….. so we have a tete a tete and laugh about it.
Reading “the Art of Teaching Science” web site prepared by Jack Hassard reminded me of a poem I hadn’t thought about for 30 years; it’s by Edna St Vincent Millay and I see it as a tribute to the wonderful teachers I was fortunate to have in a rural school.
“Upon this gifted age
In this dark hour
Reins from the sky a meteoric shower of facts.
They lie unquestioned.
Uncombined.
Wisdom enough…. is daily
spun; but there exists no loom
To weave it into fabric.”
The work that Jane, Diane and Jack H are doing reminds me of the wisdom of those wonderful teachers to whom I pay tribute.
Pioneer Institute leans toward the right (especially re: charter schools) but on Aug 7th he wrote an article that describes what Diane has said about the NAEP.
quote: “Common Core is neither internationally bencharked nor state-led
07 Aug 2013 by Jim Stergios” at Pioneer Institute Boston We agree on the fact it is not internationally benchmarked; but in Massachusetts it was state guided if not state led. At least it was not a federal mandate for Massachusetts whereas the bludgeons have come out since that time.
Jim explains the problem in language that school board members or tax payers might listen to and appreciate. Now once they have “appreciated” I don’t want them to march their kids off to charter schools (this is where Jim and I would disagree) but he does present information with out that “kick in the stomach” you get when you read the arrogance and the hubris coming from Mike Petrilli Fordham or Eduation Next (a spin off of Fordham’s articles). Mike Petrilli I call a male “Sarah Palin” as in “how is that hopey changey stuff doing for you guys”