Ravitch: Time for Congress to investigate Bill Gates’ role in Common Core

Washington Post ^ | June 9, 2014 | Valerie Strauss

[SoConPubbie]

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I have written on various occasions (here and here) that I could not support the Common Core standards because they were developed and imposed without regard to democratic process. The writers of the standards included no early childhood educators, no educators of children with disabilities, no experienced classroom teachers; indeed, the largest contingent of the drafting committee were representatives of the testing industry. No attempt was made to have pilot testing of the standards in real classrooms with real teachers and students.. The standards do not permit any means to challenge, correct, or revise them.

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In a democratic society, process matters. The high-handed manner in which these standards were written and imposed in record time makes them unacceptable. These standards not only undermine state and local control of education, but the manner in which they were written and adopted was authoritarian. No one knows how they will work, yet dozens of groups have been paid millions of dollars by the Gates Foundation to claim that they are absolutely vital for our economic future, based on no evidence whatever.

Why does state and local control matter? Until now, in education, the American idea has been that no single authority has all the answers. Local boards are best equipped to handle local problems. States set state policy, in keeping with the concept that states are “laboratories of democracy,” where new ideas can evolve and prove themselves. In our federal system, the federal government has the power to protect the civil rights of students, to conduct research, and to redistribute resources to the neediest children and schools.

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[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[chris37]

Should congress’s role in Common Core also be investigated?

[rjsimmon]

Common Core is nefarious and supporters of the program focus on preserving the current public school structure vice what is best for education. While I have no issue with having a national litmus for grade level advancement, I do take issue in how that child attains that level. If the standard is by such-and-such a grade, a child should be able to answer the question x+y=z, fine but leave the process out of the standard. Common Core, however mandates that the child MUST utilize a convoluted methodology to attain the answer. That methodology appears to be a ‘dumbing down’ of mathematics as well as willful ignorance of American history.

[5thGenTexan]

So exactly how did a college dropout who ran a software company become a subject matter expert on teaching methodologies?

[PATRIOT1876]

Bill Gates is like the rich evil nerd characters from the James Patterson novels.

“The MasterMisinformer wanted 95% or the children to be taught false Socialist ideals or die and decrease the surplus population”
~excerpt from “Cradle, Baby, and All”

[wita]

A question anyone with half a brain could answer.

[stars & stripes forever]

The real danger that goes along with Common Core is data mining.

[ExTexasRedhead]

All you need to know:

The Children’s Story by James Clavell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C1IV00LLDQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Va0b0tL1M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojxtz-9vSr8&feature=related

[itsahoot]

Common Core, however mandates that the child MUST utilize a convoluted methodology to attain the answer.

The child must deny God and accept perverted sexual indoctrination, all while ignoring history.

[minnesota_bound]

While doing that they can investigate why Windows 8 is so bad!

[chris37]

I suspect the root of that particular problem lies in ARROGANCE!

[CPT Clay]

bump