Common Core: The Chain of Betrayal

Who have we always trusted as the voice of the parents and teachers?  The PTA of course.  Most parents have attended meetings and supported PTA, but times are changing.  Many of our other pillars of education have been destroyed as well.  No longer can we send little Johnny off to school trusting he will come home smarter and stronger from the experience.

The PTA has betrayed the children and its own mission statement by accepting large sums of money from the Gates Foundation and GE to name a few, to promote their takeover of education through Common Core for their financial gain.  Just examine the Gates Foundation web site on contributions to advocate common core.

Make no mistake, this is a massive sellout.  Instead of advocating for our children, PTA and others were paid to advocate for Common Core, a national education program providing billions of dollars to GE, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Pearson PLC (3rd largest shareholder is the Government of Libya) and other high tech companies.  In partnership with our Federal Government, these groups have wrested control of education from parents and teachers and put it into the hands of nameless and unaccountable bureaucrats.  They have copyrighted the standards and will control all aspects of education, hardware and software for schools, testing and training teachers, delivering inflexible curriculum and testing of children.  Parental control is ended and teachers have become class monitors with scripted lessons, monitored and controlled so they don’t deviate from the Government Planned indoctrination.

I was recently on the textbook adoption committee for Lee County Schools, the 34th largest district in the country.  We could choose any textbooks we’d like as long as they were all Common Core aligned.  Most textbook companies and testing companies are now owned by Pearson PLC, and all contain gross errors in history and massive UN propaganda.

These same companies and groups have compromised others who were supposed to advocate for the children, the parents and the voters as well.  In fact, the Gates Foundation report above shows at least 196 grants for the purpose of advocating for Common Core.  The State Boards of Education received money.  Foundation for Education in Excellence (Jeb Bush) took large sums and now is the platform for Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.  It’s no wonder he sold the children down the river with the promise of support of the richest companies and the wealthiest people in the World in his pocket.  He used the same tactics before when he founded the Foundation for Florida’s Future to build a war chest for Florida’s gubernatorial race using ties to his father and his brother to get money from out of state donors under the radar.

Let’s look at the strange bedfellows involved:  George Soros (Center for American Progress), President Obama, Eli Broad, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, The US Chamber of Commerce, PTA, Business Round Table, many governors including Rick Scott, all are advocating Common Core.  What do they have in common?  All share either a financial or political benefit or both.

Where do our children’s interests enter?  The children are called “human capital” by the creators of Common Core for good reason.  Business groups have bought the (untrue) line that Common Core will create better and more manageable employees to produce profit.  They cite the lamentable decline in performance of our public schools but wrongly adopt common core, more of the same, as the solution.  You see, the decline parallels the level of national/ international interference in the education process.  The US Department of Education now has over 230 programs costing over $200 Billion per year and yet graduation rates have fallen by about 10% since its inception and test results have significantly declined.  It’s not possible to know exactly how much damage has been caused by Federal interference because tests have been dumbed down and results are measured differently to disguise the failure.  The Cato Institute report on the USDOE is clear. 

Common Core is the final nail in the coffin of American Exceptionalism.  Here’s the startling history of education from noted historian, David Barton:  He shows that what used to be an 8th grade education in America is now equivalent to more than a high school diploma.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/6bNl3qhBDcM[/youtube]

Every test and study has shown that parental involvement is the primary determinant of success in learning.   Meanwhile, Common Core removes parents, teachers, local districts, and states from any control of education whatsoever, by the linking of federal money (Title One, Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind Waivers) to adoption of Common Core’s uniform curriculum and National Testing.  Data collection on each little child is required and will follow the child from pre-K to work.  It will contain medical files, discipline records, family status, family religion, family political party, test scores, psychological profiles and more.  The advocates of Common Core are drooling over the marketing potential of this vast store of information as President Obama, through executive order, has reduced protection of data so that parental consent is no longer required.

Emphasis on collaborative learning reduces individual initiative and individual thought.  Forcing 70% of reading to be “informational” rather than classical works, dulls creativity and imagination.  The book, “Story-Killers” documents these effects in actual classrooms.  The author, Dr. Terrence Moore, speaks on this subject:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABCDEFGH[/youtube]

Common Core math standards have been likened to “new math” an experiment ended decades ago as a major debacle.  Instead of pilot testing programs, Common Core was rolled out nationwide with no back-up plan.  This one size fits all math education does not even offer learning math facts as we have for hundreds of years as an alternative.  Convoluted schemes which are age inappropriate, confuse and destroy the confidence of young learners.  It may never be regained.

This massive attack and infusion of propaganda on our children must be stopped now because it is an existential threat.  As Abe Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the Government in the next.”  We have powerful and wealthy people and organizations with resources beyond our imagination with the goal of taking control of education, our children and our future.  We have the truth, our voices and our votes.  This is NOT just an ISSUE for us.  This is our children and we will never let this happen on our watch.

People are rising up all over the country to stop Common Core as George Will writes, “Viewed from Washington, opposition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative still seems as small as the biblical cloud that ariseth out of the sea, no larger than a man’s hand. Soon, however, this education policy will fill a significant portion of the political sky.”

Political battles are now being won and lost on this issue as in the Florida Congressional District 19, where an “outsider” Curt Clawson, beat sitting State Senate Majority Leader, Lizbeth Benaquisto by 12 points largely because of her duplicity on Common Core.  Her conservative base was not fooled by her superficial conversion after sponsoring a bill in 2013 to implement Common Core as she is allied with Jeb Bush.  His tentacles reach far in Florida where he is a major donor and supporter of many State Legislators including Governor Scott.

Florida Governor, Rick Scott, should take this seriously as he has the identical problem.  He betrayed his base by pretending to listen while completely adopting Common Core under a new name.  He is already trailing his besmirched opponent, Charley Crist, and every vote is critical.  His advisors may believe that Republican votes will come home rather than vote for Crist but he forgets that there is a third option.  Voters will stay home, boiling mad and turned off to his betrayal of their children for the support of establishment presidential candidate, Jeb Bush.

RELATED STORIES:

The Dying of the Light: How Common Core Damages Poetry – by Esolen, Highfill, Stotsky
AP: Common Core a Defining Issue for GOP 2016 Hopefuls

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  1. […] Quackenbush in her column Common Core: The Chain of Betrayal, states, “Common Core is the final nail in the coffin of American Exceptionalism.” […]

  2. […] Quackenbush in her column Common Core: The Chain of Betrayal, states, “Common Core is the final nail in the coffin of American Exceptionalism.” […]

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