Whether you liked MCASor not, at least you knew what it was because it took 10 years to implement. The first indictment with the Common Core standards and high stakes PARCC standardized tests is “It was in our schools before parents and teachers knew what it was.”
Where was the scrutiny in Congress, and why didn’t the media inform the American public when the Obama administration awarded a 350 million dollar, no-bid contract to the Pearson Company to develop the curriculum and standardized tests, aligned to the Common Core standards? Pearson is a British company with nearly monopoly control producing textbooks and tests.
This was done despite 3 federal laws that prohibit the US Dept. of Education from directing, supervising, or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instruction, instructional materials or standards.
- General Education Provisions Act,
- Department of Education Organization Act,
- Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
In 2009, President Obama diverted billions of dollars of“stimulus funds”through his Education Secretary Arne Duncan and his Race to The Top program,with only one condition; accept the Common Core standards, “before they were written.”
Parents, local and state school boards should make decisions about our children’s education; not private companies, unelected bureaucrats, billionaires or the federal government.
It seems hypocritical for some US Senators who say they oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary because they claim she does not know what she is doing,while they have kept the American people in the dark about major decisions in education, and have remained silent for years on the role of David Coleman.
David Coleman has been described as “the most influential figure in American public education, that no one has ever heard of.” Despite having no education, credentials, training or experience as an educator, Coleman was the architect of Common Core. https://youtu.be/MZvyYfp0Mh4
At the 2011 Senior Leadership Institute, Coleman admitted he had no qualifications for developing Common Core. https://youtu.be/5kff687VKmk Coleman then stated, “Teachers will teach to the tests. There is no force strong enough on this earth to prevent that. There is no amount of hand waving, there is no amount of saying we teach to the standards, not the test, we don’t do that here, whatever.”https://youtu.be/ePrXlPQdVDw
In 2008, Coleman had convinced Bill Gates to donate 200 million dollars to promote Common Core. As soon as his work on Common Core was complete, Coleman was made president of the College Boards. He is now redesigning the SAT, and rewriting the College Board exams.To date, Bill Gates has put 9 billion dollars into promoting the Common Core standards. In 2013, in a Washington Post article, Bill Gates is quoted, “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.”
A proper role of the federal government would return education funding and control back to the states and should result in the federal government having a diminished role in decisions concerning curriculum, standards, materials and issues. Perhaps that is what the “education machine” fears the most.
Each of us should be asking, “Who is making decision about educating our children?” and “Why hasn’t the media reporting any of this?”
By Dan Allie, Westfield
