Rep. Steve Stockman, Texas: Common Core – A Big Government Assault on K-12 Education

There’s something rotten in America, and it’s called Common Core. This new approach to educating children in our country is a top-down, rotten-to-the-core set of educational standards that is being imposed on states through federal bribery.

How has this been achieved? States were promised funds from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top Program, part of the $800 billion stimulus package, if they agreed to adopt Common Core educational standards. In addition, they would receive a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act, all before these educational standards were released. Enticed by the idea of receiving more federal funds, 43 states and D.C. adopted these standards.

Thankfully, Common Core is crumbling to the core, as more parents, educators, and politicians are discovering its great problems. They are greatly concerned about how these politicized, far-Left “educational” standards are further confusing our nation’s children and complicating rudimentary education. Thanks to parents, we have seen how Common Core math problems are unnecessarily complicated and do not help children develop strong problem-solving skills.

However, President Obama and the GOP establishment are continuing to push Common Core on our nation’s children. President Obama wants to permanently establish Common Core in public schools across America through the creation of “college and career-ready standards,” which he wants to achieve by further swaying states with federal funds. In fact, he wants that permanency to become a reality by connecting federal funding to tests and Common Core standards.

Supporters are rebranding Common Core as an educational initiative that is being voluntarily embraced by states. States like Iowa and Arizona are changing its name but keeping its rotten standards. All of this is a great affront on our nation’s children, who should not be forcibly spoon-fed politicized education so bureaucrats can gleefully receive more federal funds.

I am glad Common Core is a train-wreck like Obamacare because of “implementation problems.” Clearly, educational standards should be determined by parents and state and local governments, not far-Left bureaucrats who care more about filling their pockets with federal funds than your children’s future.

In Texas, we are blessed Common Core has been rejected, thanks to the state legislature and our Attorney General Greg Abbott. If Common Core is being imposed in your state, I hope you continue to expose its great problems and move your state in the direction of repealing it. Your children should not be subjected to dumb-downed, politicized education that will only prevent them from having a bright future.

Common Core was rejected by the state of Texas as a whole, but over half of the public school districts adopted it anyway.

Over half??? Doubtful, but those that did will be sucking wind before long. Not only is it ILLEGAL to implement common core in Texas schools; those that persist will lose their state funding to boot. Brief article:

AG Abbott: Texas schools cannot use Common Core standards

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott confirmed Tuesday in a ruling that the state’s public school districts cannot adopt controversial national curriculum standards called common core.

State lawmakers passed a law prohibiting the use of the standards, but state Sen. Dan Patrick, the bill’s sponsor and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, asked Abbott for a ruling to eliminate any confusion over the meaning. Some had expressed concerns that the state’s own curriculum requirements (known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) overlap with the common core standards — adopted by nearly all states besides Texas, though some have since dropped their support or delayed the rollout.
“That concern is baseless,” wrote Abbott, the Republican gubernatorial nominee. “To use a simple example, if TEKS requires teaching that 2+2=4, the bill plainly does not prevent this instruction simply because Common Core also teaches that 2+2=4. The Legislature was aware of the frequent overlap between the TEKS and the Common Core Standards, as evidenced by the bill author’s explanation that it was not his intent ‘to prevent the use of materials where the two standards may overlap.’”
The common core standards, which had bipartisan support nationwide, have since spawned a revolt from some Republicans over concerns that the federal government has too much sway over local education policy.

AG ruling on common core

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