For right, Common Core fight prelude to bigger agenda

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

National advocacy groups powered by the Koch brothers and other conservative megadonors have found a new cause ripe with political promise: the fight to bring down the Common Core academic standards.

 

The groups are stoking populist anger over the standards — then working to channel that energy into a bold campaign to undercut public schools, weaken teachers unions and push the federal government out of education policy.

 

The Common Core standards, which have been adopted in 45 states plus the District of Columbia, are meant to guide rich and rigorous instruction in math and language arts. They have substantial bipartisan support. But they have also drawn sharp bipartisan criticism as Big Government overreach.

 

(Also on POLITICO: Full education policy coverage)

 

What started as a ragtag opposition led by a handful of angry moms is now a sophisticated national movement supported by top donors and strategists on the right. Conservative groups say their involvement already has paid dividends in the form of new members and troves of email addresses.

 

But that’s just the start.

 

A draft action plan by the advocacy group FreedomWorks lays out the effort as a series of stepping stones: First, mobilize to strike down the Common Core. Then push to expand school choice by offering parents tax credits or vouchers to help pay tuition at private and religious schools. Next, rally the troops to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Then it’s on to eliminating teacher tenure.

 

“This is going to be a huge campaign,” said Whitney Neal, the group’s director of grass-roots activism. She plans to kick it off within weeks with a series of videos that will “connect the dots” between killing Common Core and enacting other conservative priorities.

 

The campaign will build to a march on Washington this summer, perhaps in partnership with radio host Glenn Beck. “This is definitely an institutional priority for us in 2014,” she said. “We’re putting a lot of time and resources into it.”

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Seeking alternatives to classroom propaganda.

[Valin]

Is Common Core Really State-Led?

Todd Thurman

January 20, 2014

 

One of the more hotly debated subjects in America right now is the subject of Common Core National Education standards. Videos of parents complaining to school boards have gone viral. To dispel the Common Core misconceptions, Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue had published Friday a letter to the editor of the Washington Post which said:

 

 

Common Core is not a curriculum, a federal program or a federal mandate. It was created at the state level. Curriculum remains within the control of districts, school boards, school leaders and teachers.

Donohue is responding to an article written by George Will where he states:

 

The Common Core represents the ideas of several national organizations (of governors and school officials) about what and how children should learn. It is the thin end of an enormous wedge. It is designed to advance in primary and secondary education the general progressive agenda of centralization and uniformity.

Opponents of Common Core cite the fact that it is, in fact, national education standards. According to the Common Core website:

 

(Snip)