I don’t often agree with the libertarian CATO Institute, as I am not a libertarian. I appreciate the necessity of a vigorous federal government that provides a safety net and protects the neediest. However, I don’t appreciate the federal government doing what is clearly illegal, that is, controlling, directing, and supervising curriculum and instruction via the Common Core standards. Although its supporters, including President Obma nd Secretary Duncan, repeat that its development was “state-led,” that was a deception. Bill gates funded them because the Feds were barred from doing so, but the Feds funded the tests that will control curriculum and instruction. There has been no louder cheerleader than Duncan.
Now we learn from CATO that the Obama administration wants to make CCSS a permanent part of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It says,
“President Obama proposes changing Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – of which NCLB is just the most recent reauthorization – to a program called “College- and Career-Ready Students,” with an annual appropriation of over $14 billion.”
Title 1 is the key part of the original 1965 ESEA. It was intended to distribute federal aid to schools that enroll poor kids, no conditions attached. The funding is based on a formula tied to need, not a competition. Using it to cement CCSS into every school would be a travesty and a misuse of federal power.
Hopefully, there are alert members of Congress watching who will block this move. It will hurt poor kids by tying their eligibility for aid to a program of standards and standardized testing that consistently labels them as low-performing. They need equitable resources more than they need the untested CCSS.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yeah… Common Core will now “permanent and mandatory”….
but NOT for his kids, Sasha & Malia
NOT for NYS Ed Commissioner John King’s kids
NOT for Bill Gates’ kids
NOT for Rahm Emanuel’s kids
NOT for Michelle Rhee’s kids
and on and on…
Jack: exactly!
Of all the arguments against the destructive policies and behaviors of the self-styled “education reformers” this is one of the very few that they have never been able to successfully spin.
For example, Governor Chris Christie does a full frontal attack whenever someone brings up the inconvenient fact that he—and by implication, others in mad dog pursuit of $tudent $ucce$$—ensure an enriched genuine education for THEIR OWN CHILDREN while mandating a much inferior experience for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
For example, a short piece from 2011 entitled “Christie’s ‘It’s None Of Your Business’ Comment Ruffles Feathers of N.J. Voters N.J. Governor Takes Exception To Question On Why His Kids Go To Private School”—
Link: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/06/17/christies-its-none-of-your-business-comment-ruffles-feathers-of-n-j-voters/
But then, what can we expect from a high profile edubully whose can’t disguise his contempt for ‘uppity’ teachers? In response to a question from an actual educator: “I am tired of you people.” In a public setting, done in a way meant to intimidate and silence.
Link:http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/11/exclusive-govchristie-to-teacher-i-am.html
Thank you for your comments.
😎
Here’s an old post I directed at
Lawrence Steinberg at an old
thread here:
https://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/14/the-laffaire-steinberg-ogozolak-continues/
What if a U.S. Surgeon General
told the nation’s parents that a
great new vaccine has just been
invented, and it’s going to
revolutionize the health of
children and their ability
to fight off disease … blah-
blah-blah…. all the while
the Surgeon General is
being handsomely
compensated for pushing
this vaccine.
And then someone asks,
“Mr. Surgeon General… why
don’t you give that new vaccine
to YOUR OWN children? If the
vaccine is so great, why do
you spend tons of your own
money so that your kids get
an entirely different, and—
by all measures—a superior
vaccine?”
“My children’s vaccination is
none of your business, and
not fair ground for discussion.”
And to add insult to injury,
the hypothetical Surgeon
General intones, “Your kids
are all going to be forced
to take this vaccine whether
you like or not.” With the
power of the state behind
him, he says that, figuratively
speaking, he and the state
will shove it down your kids’
throats, or strap them to
a chair and forcibly inject
into their biceps whether
or not their parents desire
such a vaccine.
“This is what we’re doing,
and there’s nothing you can
do to stop us… so just shut
up and accept it.”
You can see how parents
might be a little vexed by
such a prospect.
Of course, you know I’m
talking about New York State
Ed. Commissioner John King
and his forcing Common
Core on other people’s
children, while keeping his own
children… figuratively
speaking… as far away from
Common Core as his Gates-
originated salary can afford.
Seriously… if Common Core
is the greatest thing ever
for a kid’s education, why
does King spend tens of
thousands of dollars on
expensive private school
tuition to make sure his own
children are kept away from it?
Check out the crucial final 20 min.
of last October’s town hall in
Poughkeepsie, New York,
where NY State Ed.
Commissioner John King
faced the public over his
backing of Common Core.
Here is the colorfully titled
YouTube video —
“Commissioner King Gets Spanked”:
(NOTE: this has been watched 56,476 times!!!)
This meeting was a Rhee-like
farce where King spoke for 2
hours straight, and was scheduled
to to be followed by 1 hour of
public comments and questions.
Note that… ***was scheduled to
be followed…***
The best laid plans…
Indeed, 20 minutes in, neither
King nor the NY State PTA
moderator “could stand the
heat, so they got outta the kitchen.”
They were totally unprepared by
how well-informed and
confrontational these parents were.
At about the 10 minute mark, one
parent brought up the fact that King
sends his own kids to a Montessori
School, which has a curriculum that
is the antithesis of Common Core
as a Montessori school is…
(to quote its wikipedia entry)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
“… characterized by an emphasis on
independence, freedom within limits,
and respect for a child’s natural
psychological, physical, and social
development….
“… and has these elements
as essential:[1][2]
” — Mixed age classrooms, with
classrooms for children aged
2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the
most common
“— Student choice of activity
from within a prescribed range of
options
“— Uninterrupted blocks of work
time, ideally three hours
“— A Constructivist or ‘discovery’
model, where students learn
concepts from working with
materials, rather than by direct
instruction.
“Specialized educational materials
developed by Montessori and her
collaborators
“— Freedom of movement within
the classroom
” — A trained Montessori teacher
“In addition, many Montessori
schools design their programs
with reference to Montessori’s
model of human development
from her published works, and
use pedagogy, lessons, and
materials introduced in teacher
training derived from courses
presented by Montessori
during her lifetime… ”
– – – – – – – – – – – –
This disclosure of his hypocrisy
and implied attack on King pretty
much ended things.
King made the dubious claim that
his Montessori school scrupulously
follows “Common Core”
This totally enraged the audience
of parents as it was and is a
ludicrous and demonstrably false
claim that was rightly met with
skepticism and loud booing,
enraging the crowd… if for
no other reason that folks
don’t like to be lied to or have
their intelligences insulted.
Seriously… if Common Core
is the greatest thing ever
for a kid’s education, why
does King spend tens of
thousands of dollars of
expensive private school
tuition to make sure his own
children are, figuratively
speaking, kept as far away from
it as as Gates-funded salary
can afford.
It’s like if a Surgeon General
told the nation’s parents that a
great new vaccine has just been
invented, and it’s going to
revolutionize the health of
children and their ability
to fight off disease … blah-
blah-blah…. all the while
the Surgeon General is
being handsomely
compensated for pushing
this vaccine.
And then someone asks,
“Mr. Surgeon General… why
don’t you give that new vaccine
to YOUR OWN children? If the
vaccine is so great, why do
you spend tons of your own
money so that your kids get
an entirely different, and—
by all measures—a superior
vaccine?”
“My children’s vaccination is
none of your business, and
not fair ground for discussion.”
Anyway, back to the town
hall video…
The flustered moderator then
quickly wrapped it up, “We’re going
to allow two more people to speak.”
At which point people began
screaming even louder:
“WHAT HAPPENED TO ‘ONE
HOUR’ ?!!!”
This is absolutely riveting video.
Again, you can see that crucial
final 20 minutes at:
One other point:
I just noticed something while
watching this video. King
sends his kid to a “private
school”… but he doesn’t
use the phrase….
Instead, he calls his kids’
school a “non-public school”…
(at 15:52)
KING: “Non-public schools
are part of the community
of schools in our state… ”
It’s part of some Neuro-
Linguistic Programming
technique to subliminally
get the people in the
audience to not associate
King with elitists who avoid
the public schools and
instead send their kids to…
yes… PRIVATE schools…
No, he’s just like all you
“public” school parents.
I think it’s called “negation”
where what follows the
negation… in this case..
the negation is the weasel
prefix “non”, and what follows
it is “public”… with the “public
being what actually is actually
processed by the mind..
By calling it “non-public”
the word “public” is in the
phrase, and that’s what
gets processed… with
people then NOT associating
King with “private” schools…
i.e. avoid using the word
“private” at any cost.
Thank you for sharing the video clip, Jack. Your comment regarding King’s intentional double-speak is, indeed, acutely insightful. George Orwell would be proud by King’s verbal skills.
Corporations wouldn’t be able to make profits selling CC aligned text books, software, computers, tests etc. if John King had promoted Montessori education for other people’s children.
It seems that not all electric plugs are the same; some are custom made and some are stock pieces.
This is absolutely horrendous and completely unacceptable.
So now the need to organize: who are the people we should be contacting to prevent this? We need to flood government offices with our concerns. Who in congress is alert to what is happening in education? Who is sympathetic to the needs of children?
The first step, of course, is NOT to reauthorize the ESEA under any circumstances.
No, he will not. That gravy train is derailed for good. That foundered ship will be towed back to port, and the kids and teachers already trapped on it rescued.
Fellow NEA members, and also brothers and sisters in the AFT, please take action on this now. We have to take back our unions, so we don’t become accomplices in the corporate crime spree.
Weingarten and VanRoekel have both taken $$$ this year, to institute a “formal partnership” with PARCC and Smarter Balanced at a national level. Here’s the NEA press notice from January, which I never read till Susan Ohanian pointed it out in this morning’s newsletter:
http://www.nea.org/home/57603.htm
In Massachusetts, the delegate lists for the May 9-10 MTA convention aren’t due until April 25. Many delegate slots are unfilled. Call your local president and put your name in nomination. Paul Toner is trying to move up to the national board in at the convention in Denver this summer, and there are serious challengers prepared to make a fight of this sellout. Join us.
Unfortunately, the privateer’s grip on the unions became stronger yesterday, when Randi Weingarten and her successor, Michael Mulgrew, successfully took over NYSUT, the federation of New York State teacher’s unions.
This occurred because the former head of NYSUT, Richard Ianuzzi, dared to question the edicts coming out of John King’s State Department of Education, and opposed the UFT’s pre-emptive support for Cuomo’s re-election. This deal entailed the UFT stabbing NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio in the back over his tentative efforts to halt charter takeovers of public school facilities.
The UFT mis-leadership could not even bring itself to make a few perfunctory remarks in opposition to Cuomo’s support for Moskowitz closing her schools and ordering a forced march of children, parents and staff to demonstrate in Albany, conclusively proving that these are not public schools. As the New York Times later reported, Cuomo is the driving force behind the Wall Street-funded attacks on De Blasio that have been saturating the local airwaves. Yet Weingrew remains joined at the hip with the governor.
Cuomo rewarded Weingrew and their fellow loyalty oath-signing rubes with legislation that provides even more favoritism for charters, and drains ever-more resources from the public schools, guaranteeing reduced union membership in the future.
Weingrew’s actions also condemn suburban and rural teachers in NYS from receiving salary increases, since Cuomo’s property tax cap has effectively frozen their wages.
As class antagonism gets thrown into sharper relief via the hostile takeover of the public schools, it becomes clearer that the old verities from the 1930’s are in fact true: there really are just two sides in this battle: Us (students, parents and teachers) and Them (the privateers).
Weingarten and Mulgrew are Them.
I’ve said in the past that Weingrew runs a dues-collection agency, but I was mistaken; a real dues-collection agency would have a greater sense of self-preservation. What we have running the unions instead are (self-deluded, would be) courtiers and (actual) courtesans for a privateering Overclass.
Diane, what do you say about Michael Fiorillo’s reporting of events? Terrible!
They’re moles. I’ve said it all along because it was obvious. Infiltrating groups to destroy them from within is a favorite tactic of totalitarians.
Direct from NYSUT:
NEW YORK April 5, 2014 — Delegates to New York State United Teachers’ 42nd Representative Assembly today voted “no confidence” in the policies of State Education Commissioner John King Jr. and called for his immediate removal by the Board of Regents.
In a unanimous voice vote, the nearly 3,000 delegates also formally withdrew the union’s support for the Common Core standards as interpreted and implemented in New York state and, in a separate resolution, supported the rights of parents and guardians to opt their children out of high-stakes tests.
“There is a revolution under way. Parents and teachers, standing together on behalf of what’s best for students, have made it clear that ‘enough is enough,’” said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi. “We have had it with top-down decision-making that ignores the voices of parents and teachers, and we’ve had it with a broken ideology that values obsessive testing and data collection over teaching and learning and meeting the needs of the whole child.”
NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira said, “NYSUT and our members have consistently done everything to convince SED to avoid the train wreck they have engineered. For three years, SED and the Regents have repeatedly rejected every significant recommendation teachers and parents made to correct the huge problems with Common Core and the Regents reform agenda.” She added, “Our message is loud and clear: Commissioner King has got to go.”
Can the unions do a “no confidence” vote to oust the current leadership. It is apparent that the teachers of this country have no confidence in their ability to lead. They both should be forced to resign.
“that the president almost certainly wants to make the Core permanent by attaching annual federal funding to its use, and to performance on related tests.”
No one could have predicted the testing obsessives would use the tests as a hammer to batter public schools! Of course, to believe that, one had to ignore their actions over the last decade.
What a betrayal to the kids who are dutifully working on the tests this week and last. If they do poorly, their schools will be on the ed reform chopping block. Once again, it is ALL about the tests.
Are there any plans to make sure there are advocates for public schools at the table during this rewrite? Public schools are going to get killed if we have the usual mix of passionate advocates for privatization on the “R” side of the aisle and the wimpy mush of “agonistics” and “relinquishers” on the “D” side.
Public schools will take yet another hit with no advocates at the table, looking at the track record of the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress.
It’d be great if we had an actual lawmaker looking out for public schools, but apparently that’s too much to ask.
Chiara says, “Are there any plans to make sure there are advocates for public schools at the table during this rewrite?”
Chiara, there will be no rewrite. Anybody at that table is a mole and an enemy of public education. If that’s what you’re after, I’m pretty sure you’ve either taken their money, or hope to.
Let us make it clear: we the people don’t need somebody “at the table” for any rewrite of ESEA. It’s out table. Don’t reauthorize it, period. Anybody who takes a place at the “corporate control is inevitable we should put our own spin on it” table is looking to advance his or her career with the corporate control movement.
But the neo-liberals behind the fake ed reform movement don’t see that as the people’s table. They think of it as their table.
Interesting that CATO also says Indiana’s opt-out of the CCSS may be largely symbolic because the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (latest version,NCLB) still makes funding contingent on substantial compliance with the CCSS agenda. That also seems to be true with the four states that did not sign up.
Federal funds flowing to states for K-12 education average about 10%-12% of state K-12 budgets. Federal law prohibits the level of control implied in CATO report on Obama’s plans.
First step. Determine if the CATO report is a reliable red flag on this matter. There are many political insiders there so it is worth taking seriously. Second, with the huge following you have gathered on this site, perhaps it would be good to post some short-cuts for communicating with home state members of Congress and key education committee members working on the reauthorization of of NCLB.
The League of Women Voters is probably a good starting point. Also this info should be in the hands of Common Cause among other groups. Hope to be back with some specifics, but others many be more savvy than I am.
Parents across the nation, PROTEST and OPT OUT!!!! We need to advocate for our children because no one will!!!!!!! This abuse must END!!
Exciting careers where standardized test taking skills are key to employment?
Obama? Buehler? Anyone? Anyone?
Maybe we need to start one of those petitions at Change.com to petition both houses of Congress to vote against this.
However, there’s another site that’s even better. One designed to petition Congress. I forgot the name.
I signed one on that site recently and when I put in my Zip code, the e-mails in my name went automatically to the representatives in Congress from my district and state.
Susan Ohanian has a White House petition up. I signed that, and so should everybody, I think.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/direct-department-education-congress-remove-annual-standardized-testing-mandates-nclb-and-rttt/1lSSvnYK
It demands the removal of mandated testing from ESEA, and from RTTT. You could also direct other petitions to Congress as you describe, although that certainly doesn’t replace the sheer muscle of each of us actually contacting our own representatives.
Does the White House petition also go to members of both houses of Congress. If not, I don’t think a petition to the White House will accomplish anything. Obama doesn’t have to run for re-election and he appointed Arne to be Secretary of Education.
I’ll sign it anyway as a show of support.
There is still language that allows for escape from CCSS in Obama’s 2010 Blueprint for ESEA reauthorization:
States may either choose to upgrade their existing standards, working with their 4-year public university system to certify that mastery of the standards ensures that a student will not need to take remedial coursework upon admission to a postsecondary institution in the system, or work with other states to create state-developed common standards that build toward college- and career-readiness. (page 8)
Click to access blueprint.pdf
Notice that the burden of research proof is placed upon states choosing their own standards and not those choosing “common” standards– an enticement to sign onto CCSS– but not yet a requirement so far at this 2010 draft is concerned.
I think that Cato report is referring to a new plan/blueprint/policy from Obama for the pending reauthorization of ESEA.
Everything you say is always right on target. And what you point out here is, well, codified in the ESEA reauthorization. What brings most states to sign on to CCSS seems more about the money than it does any burden of proof to stop CCSS. Once signed on, the attempts at modification are difficult and likely in default of contract. And that appears to be when the wait what? factor hits. While tied up in litigation, public schools and or their representatives continue to deliver the goods agreed upon.
All the more important that CCSS proponents move quickly to capture higher education. What remedial course work? We will have such a tiered education system that higher ed. will contract cheaper labor, make cuts in course offerings, and continue to raise tuitions so that they remain profitable as CCSS approved students make their way through their gates. The less fortunate? I guess that’s where the “career ready” comes in, yes? So, will the trade and vocational schools (which have vanished as fast and as much as have unions in America) be available for these non-college ready students? I can see a whole empire monopoly of tiered training. Maybe our non-college ready students can be outsourced. Will they become the new TFA grads?
Work with other states? What incentives are there out there? I’m asking you because you know more than I do. As a city and regional planner and teacher of many years, I find even city to city agreement historically almost non-existent.
In this era where the banks have bankrupted the common good, what would you suggest be done for the taking back of local control of public education, remove federal and state funding of private schools that are working under no accountability or as high a one as public schools?
People call me crazy. Hey, I’m just mortified.
You do not sound crazy to me Kuhio, but that may be because I am pretty far gone myself. Lower tiered non-college ready students will not qualify for TFA. Remember they are supposed to be the best and the brightest en route to real careers and not stuck in dead end teaching jobs like the rest of us.
The CATO article links to this 2010 draft.
If CATO has info on a newer draft, it should link to that draft.
Until teachers take back their unions (as has been noted above in these comments) little is likely to change. With federal mandates come funding. Time for teachers to put themselves first so that they can move their students forward in a pedagogy that creates life long learners.
Not one person has been held accountable and jailed for their duplicity in the atrocities of recent wars. Not one person has been jailed for their dissemblance that is bankrupting billions of people globally. Not one. Can anyone legitimately think that petitioning those whose connivance through silence will bring changes we seek, regaining our public schools; the greatest of our common weal?
Clearly, it’s time for something more compelling, more vigorous in our approach to the closing of public schools, the elimination of choice; of tiered and unequal schooling, housing; our civil rights. The ownership class ignore constitutional mandates. It’s time we move forward in great disobedience to a continued disregard of people’s rights by procured agency—from school boards, to teachers’ unions, to those federal agencies that continue to support market based education.
Kuhio Kane,
I agree with your assessment.
As I observed the “show” proceedings of the CT SBOE last week, and read subsequent reporting in several of the state’s “major” newspapers regarding the four charters that were approved, I was deeply saddened. I was saddened to see, again, the legal authority of two local education agencies (Bridgeport and Stamford) thwarted in their effort to put forward the wishes of their respective constituencies.
Well, I’m done with being sad. It is an emotion that cannot take me where I need to go so… done!
I’ve moved on to an emotion that has, mostly, served me well in life, generally, and in my education career, specifically. The emotion? Anger. Not the overwhelming type of anger that clouds your mind and sends words flying out of your mouth that you later regret. No, not that type at all. Rather, I speak of the type of anger that slows your breathing, clears your mind, and allows you to gather and direct your energy with unwavering focus.
One of the first things that came to me as I settled into my anger was that I no longer will expend precious energy on telling wealthy individuals, the institutions they have created as extensions of themselves, or the underlings who do their bidding that they should feel shame for their actions. I no longer want to spend time explaining what havoc their decisions wreck in the lives of our communities’ children, parents, and teachers. I no longer wish to question the quality of their intentions. In fact, I have no desire to think about them at all. I know they exist, they have always existed, and they will continue to do so.
Rather, I want to focus on and engage individuals and institutions that want appropriately funded public education, not just publicly funded schools, in the US. I want to assist efforts to get information and resources into the hands of community members to initiate and sustain campaigns of resistance against the likes of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Duncan/Obama Department of Education, the Walton Foundation, governors such as Christie, Cuomo, and Malloy, and rubber-stamping state legislatures and BOEs.
I understand that King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a document that the CCSS folks consider important for students to know something about. I agree. Though I greatly admire King’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, I have always been more drawn to “Letter…” because it offers an opportunity to look more closely at King’s thinking, philosophy, and actions.
I particularly focused on this passage:
From King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” April 16, 1963
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.
I believe that over the last several years, many people and organizations have been collecting and disseminating facts through a variety of alternative (to mainstream media) sources. Growing numbers of parents, students, teachers, and other community members are coming to understand the injustices that are being perpetuated on public education by corporate reformers. However, many, many more individuals, including those who believe charter schools offer students and their families a safe haven, need to understand that what is currently happening is just one more phase in a plan that is meant, in time, to impact every aspect of our lives in the US, without our expressed consent.
I do not see negotiation as something that we can expect to participate in for a few years. Fear is too much with us, specifically in relation to employment. It is certainly clear that the parties who are holding our economy captive have no intention of loosening their grip. Therefore, we must seriously consider engaging in non-violent direct action—demonstrations, organized protests, sit-ins, other acts of civil disobedience—to expose to the society and the world how our oppressors (corporate reformers) are waging financial and psychological warfare in their unrelenting push to control government at every level.
The step of self-purification is critical to our ability use direct action. I realize that when one thinks of schools and direct action the immediate fear is that young people—children and adolescents—may be harmed. This is something that every conscientious adult wants to avoid. However, as we have seen in this country, areas of the Middle East, India, South Africa, and other countries around the world when a citizenry finds it necessary to resist injustice, even through non-violent action, the possibility of adults and children experiencing injury or death is present. Self-purification requires that individually and collectively we thoroughly examine our hearts and minds and confront and address this fear and others to organize and implement direct action. I am not talking about a PR stunt, ala Moskowitz/Cuomo. No. Think Selma. Think Soweto. Think Tiananmen Square. Think Malala Yousafzai.
The excellent writings—blogs, books, reports, and articles—that have been produced in the last several years represent one facet of the work to inform our citizenry about the dismantling of the teaching profession and public education. The establishment of grassroots organizations, such as the Network for Public Education (NPE), Students United for Public Education, Providence (RI) Student Union, and Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment (TAMSA, a.k.a. Moms Against Drunk Testing),have been successful in put ting“boots on the ground” to address local and state governmental agencies and authorities. Now, it is time to begin to prepare to take our message directly to the streets. We may not have the bucks. We may not have the ballots (see bucks). But, we do have the bodies. The question is: are we willing to use them?
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you will have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted…. Frederick Douglass, No Struggle, No Progress (1857)
Beautifully said, Elle!
Until teachers take back their unions
yes
I still hold out hope there.
So much for the requirement that the federal government not mandate curriculum for state public schools. Disgusting.
For anyone who need to know or cite the law that prohibits what the feds are doing by threading legal needles here you go. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/20/usc_sup_01_20.html
Legal Restriction: “U. S. Congress. General Provisions Concerning Education. (2010, February). Section 438 (20 U.S.C. § 1232a). US Code TITLE 20 EDUCATION CHAPTER 31, SUBCHAPTER III, Part 2, §§ 1232a. Prohibition against Federal control of education. No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, or to require the assignment or transportation of students or teachers in order to overcome racial imbalance.”
Legal Restriction: “The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002). Section 9527 ESEA amended by NCLB (20 U.S.C. § 7907(a).]) This provision is based on 20 U.S.C. 7907(a) (Section 9527(a) of NCLB). Section 7907(a) is one of the ESEA’s general provisions contained in Title IX of the Act. It states: Nothing in this [Act] shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school’s curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this [Act]. 20 U.S.C. 7907(a).”
You’ve done excellent work here, Laura! The problem is, it’s so clear,
I can’t fathom what to do with it.
I don’t see any hole in this needle they could have threaded.
I don’t understand HTF they’re getting away with it.
Race to the top was/is illegal.
Waivers requiring states to submit to the CCSS are illegal.
The memoranda of agreement signed for the RttT have no legal standing.
agreed entirely
Laura Chapman, you are a national treasure! Your memory and your research are invaluable.
Opposition to this must unite the right, left, and center–all who cherish liberty
Impeachment time. This is totally illegal.
Of course it is.
What remains needed is a pairing of a “rigorous” education and social parity. Poverty and race are still treated as communicable diseases: We don’t like discussing their continued presence and vestigial influence on life-quality outcomes. We so hope for and believe in a simple, tidy solution such as the “smartly” packaged Common Core. Regardless of how if we cloth children’s minds, these precious ones still need a “ball” to attend in their “finery”. “Ready-to-work” educational mandates profit little when external measures of success and power are out-of-reach.
Cui bono?
Who benefits?
The Common Core was NEVER about improving education. Here’s the real story of who paid for it and why:
http://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/connecting-the-pieces-open-source-big-data-and-the-origins-of-the-common-sic-core-sic/
A lot of people–politicians, educrats, and union leaders, have been totally PLAYED.
So, what’s the alternative? (Ed Deformers always ask this, expecting stunned silence in reply. Well, here’s the alternative.)
An open-source wiki to which are published, for every domain, in every subject, for varied learners, at every grade level, VOLUNTARY, COMPETING
standards
frameworks
sample lesson plans
model curricula
learning progressions (aka curriculum maps)
pedagogical techniques, strategies, and rationales
texts
in a variety of formats (including video)
prepared by independent scholars, researchers, curriculum developers, practitioners (teachers, curriculum coordinators, other administrators), and professionals in various fields
That’s how you get innovation.
You don’t get it via regimentation, standardization, and top-down mandates from a national Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth, from a national curriculum and pedagogy Thought Police.
If anyone knows a source of philanthropic funding for getting such a thing started, let me know. I am ready to start building it, but it’s not going to be cheap to do so.
But we need to put together real alternatives. An existence proof of how vastly superior the open-source alternative is.
Think of the resources we could muster for this.
Compare Wikipedia to the Encarta.
We could build something that would offer so many, many clearly superior alternatives to the puerile Common Core Thought Police game plan that it would be OBVIOUS to EVERYONE which serves the national interest.
I am ready to start building it, and I know that many of you would join with me. Soon, we would be thousands and thousands.
What do you say?
Bob Shepherd:
The amount of time, effort, and funding required to do that would be staggering. I’m not saying it isn’t a good idea, but to launch and sustain it without compromising the original principles would be a big challenge.
ISKME (Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education) is a group that supports open educational resources and claims to be doing something similar. If you study their web pages you might find that, though their stated purposes sound noble, to some extent they’re enmeshed with aspects of the reform movement.
I attended their Big Ideas Fest in 2009 and discovered a lot of variety in the thinking of speakers and other participants. Some progressive thinking, some reactionary. The Gates influence was palpable. (I might have been one of the few self-funded registrants.) In other words, sponsorship may come at a price. Still, their websites are worth a look.
ISKME: http://www.iskme.org/
OER Commons: http://www.oercommons.org/
Look at Wikipedia, Randal. I am envisioning creating a framework and then allowing Open Source Magic to populate it. I have been giving quite a bit of thought to this. Thanks for the heads up. I will look there.
One Ring to Rule Them ALL–the Totalitarian Common Core
or
A National Open-Source K-12 Wiki for Competing, Voluntary Frameworks, Standards, Curriculum, and Pedagogy?
What do you think? I am game.
A Commons for those seeking unCommon education
Our Motto:
“I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture.”
—— Albert Einstein, Saturday Evening Post interview, 10/26/1929
In short, I am tired of cursing the Core.
I want to start building the alternatives.
Note the plural there.
Montessori education could really be an alternative option for everyone. Any classroom can be transformed into a Montessori classroom; it doesn’t require a charter school to make it happen. Many of the materials can be easily made or purchased at a reasonable price. It is a complete method and curriculum. It’s a great way to teach if you like to have a connection with your students and be creative. It is a great way to learn because it is all about “following the child.” Maria Montessori originally created her method for the poor, disadvantaged children in the ghettos of Italy because Maria Montessori was a true advocate for all children. She considered herself “a citizen of the world” and understood how power and politics could destroy education. There are many options for training teachers and there is no copyright on the method or curriculum. All I can tell you is that I love being an Montessori teacher in a 6-12 year old classroom and my students love school every day.
And this should be one of the models, one of many, laid out completely, in one place, for educators to consider. That would be the point of having an open-source wiki–to provide alternative models, in enormous detail.
Get to the heart of the matter. Declare an Opt Out of Testing date with protest outside schools, state capitol, DC…big enough to trigger national news. How can reformers operate without their data?
Kuhio suggested civil disobedience. I believe what he is saying is that we should be in our last stage of corporate attack on education: First denial, second–time to wake up and organize, third–time for action.
yes, opting out is first
however, there is a bigger game afoot here than just the testing; it involves an attempt on the part of a partnership between a certain computer mogul and some educational publishers to effect a standards-based revolution in how teaching is delivered in the United States. Even if the tests were killed tomorrow, that would continue, and it’s very, very dangerous and consequential.
Bob,
I am no computer maven, but couldn’t it operate as one giant website? We all have different areas of expertise. For example, I am an ESL teacher. It could be like a huge patchwork quilt of ideas. I am so tired of being discouraged. You have a wonderful idea. Maybe we could fund raise amongst ourselves.
yes, precisely. one site, many paths
I sent this blog to our state and local Democratic Party chairs, along with commentary of my own about how dangerous Duncan, Emanuel, Cuomo, Rawlings, etc. are to public education. I recommend that everyone do the same!
I agree with you, Bob S. I am tired of complaining about the Common Core and think it is necessary to start planning the alternatives. A compromise of rigorous standards, but those that are developmentally appropriate for students. I currently have 1 student on grade level in my class and using the Common Core standards as is does not benefit the majority of my student learners. It is time for teachers to stand up and be vocal about ways to modify the Common Core Standards. Those in office are unaware of the educational environment and are making inappropriate decisions. In a perfect world, I would like to see the teachers become the primary stakeholders in designing and accepting appropriate standards for learning. We are the experts in education, not politicians.
Amy, you are an agent for corporate education control .
“It is time for teachers to stand up and be vocal about ways to modify the Common Core Standards.” – No, it’s way past time for real teachers to put an end to the accountability racket.
I published a link to the measly bribe corporate ed has extended to hire collaborators in the teacher unions. It won’t work, we’re on to you.
I do agree with this, Amy. It’s time to tell them where to put their amateurish Common [sic] Core [sic]
I would like to see the teachers become the primary stakeholders in designing and accepting appropriate standards for learning. We are the experts in education, not politicians.
Well said, Amy! I want to do this.
But not some one set of standards. That’s a really, really dangerous idea. Many, competing ones, voluntary ones, ideas, springboards, possibilities, never set in stone.
I am running for U.S. Congress in Ohio. I am alarmed by these proposals and, even though I am an Obama supporter, would fight tooth and nail to block these new proposals.
Janet, best of luck to you in this race. Make it in issue. There is an enormous groundswell of opposition to this totalitarian centralization of K-12 education and to these abusive, invariant, ignorantly designed, curriculum and pedagogy distorting standardized tests.
If you are going to continue to make the Feds your GOD, then you have to worship that GOD.
We have enough history that shows us what TOO much power in the hands of a centralized Govt./tyrant does to a nation.
You can say you reject libertarians but if you continue to empower the FEDS then don’t complain when the FEDS turn and STEP on you.
it’s the nature of the beast.
Libertarians are not anarchists. I wouldn’t even qualify myself as a Libertarian based on what some of them stand for, but I have a healthy skepticism of the Feds and I SUPPORT the 10th Amendment.
Get the FEDS out of Education because they don’t belong there to begin with.
There are alterantives, MOMwithAbrain. There is a large and growing group of folks who call themselves bleeding-heart libertarians, who believe that the proper role of the State is defense but that that includes defense of the children of the poor against poverty, of the indigent ill against disease. And there are the neo-Georgians like me.
And the anarcho-syndicalists.
Those groups will grow as the oligarchy attempts to tighten its stranglehold.
The link to the FY2015 Department of Education budget proposal summary is http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget15/summary/15summary.pdf.
In addition to the support for College and Career Readiness standards, I think many will also find the proposed changes in the sections on “Excellent Instructional Teams” and “Expanding Educational Options” of interest.
Building the Machine, a movie about Common Core.
“Building the Machine introduces the public to the Common Core States Standards Initiative (CCSSI) and its effects on our children’s education. The documentary compiles interviews from leading educational experts, including members of the Common Core Validation Committee. Parents, officials, and the American public should be involved in this national decision regardless of their political persuasion.”
http://commoncoremovie.com/
Just watched the movie and am forwarding it to others.
wonderful
Here, fodder for this. My essay may provide a piece of the puzzle that you have yet to consider–ed deform as a response to the threat from Open Source.
But then again, maybe you have!
http://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/connecting-the-pieces-open-source-big-data-and-the-origins-of-the-common-sic-core-sic/
Looking forward to exploring your film! THANK YOU!!!!
Susan, your film is AMAZING. What a brilliant job you did of this!!!
Kudos.
Susan, again, magnificent work. Extraordinarily important work. Thank you for taking this on and doing such a fine job of it. I hope that every parent in the country will see it.
Kids differ. The bullet lists of standards do not.
Stop the creation of the Common Core Curriculum Commissariat and Ministry of Truth. Schools are not factories for milling of identical machine parts. The regimented, standardized extrinsic punishment and reward system is backward and punitive and soul crushing. And it will breed only mediocrity and further class division.
For the sake of all those varied children, that they may take their varied places in a complex, diverse, pluralistic society. That they may discover their unique gifts and build upon those.
Stop the Coring of our country.
There is much to agree on between right and left on this issue. We have to band together for a grass roots movement to stop this madness. I know I am willing I hope others are as well.
Diane….I wouldn’t count on it. We need to start calling them NOW and call them everyday. They didn’t do a thing to stop RTTT nor did they do anything to address the changes to FERPA so I don’t expect much from them on ESEA.