Top 10 Objections to Common Core Education Standards
1. Federal Control vs States rights: Proponents say Common Core national standards are needed to compare Florida kids test scores to other states & countries. Violates states rights and forces a central, Federally funded education plan on the States in order to qualify for Race to the Top Federal Stimulus Fund grants in 2010. Implementation of CC violated at least three Federal laws prohibiting the Feds from dictating education curriculum. Big government supporters like it, state & parental rights folks don’t. The claim that Common Core is “state led” has been disproven.
2. Parental Rights: Violates parental rights to determine education techniques for their kids by forcing a one size fits all education system on all School Districts in each state that adopted the standards.
3. Unproven techniques: Forces changes from traditional education teaching methods into unproven techniques. No pilot studies were completed to adequately justify Common core adoption. CC was developed in the dark and implemented via administrative trickery just like Obamacare. Some people now call Common Core ObamaCore.
4. Dumbs down education by requiring disadvantaged or non-English speaking children to be in same classes as "normal" kids without specialized help. The result is a lowering of expectations so low achievers and disabled kids can keep up, frustrating and lowering education of high achieving students. Reduces use of literature in high school classes to 30% of current levels.
5. High Costs: Requires EXCEPTIONALLY costly computerized exams as an unfunded mandate without paying the school districts for equipment or training costs. NO solid estimates or budgets for the testing were provided at State or Federal level in public or by legislators. The computerized exams are being developed without transparency or teacher or parental advice. The added cost alone could almost bankrupt some schools or states. Two Federally funded firms linked to liberals created the exams, and teachers get merit increases only if students do well on the computerized tests.
6. Many opponents: Vast numbers of groups, parents, teachers and individuals are going on record (see our Factsheet link below) against Common Core, indicating a major disconnect between advocates and the public. School staff seem unaware of objections to it. NOTE: Florida school districts are mandated to adopt the standards, so don’t blame them. Focus your feedback on Florida State and Federal legislators.
7. Data Mining: Inconsistent reports have been published about requirements to violate privacy and collect vast amounts of data on each student, including personal and parent data WITHOUT parental approvals, which in some states could be shared with outsiders. Data mining violation of privacy is an issue.
8. College Entrance exams biased to Common Core: Common Core advocates have subverted the college entrance exam firms, ACT and SAT, to "align" their tests with Common Core standards, thus excluding private, home or charter schools not following Common Core standards. This means a student who is not in a Common Core school will get lower scores on centralized, Common Core focused college entrance exams.
9. One World UN Viewpoint: Common core seems to be developed to implement one world socialist education visions of UNESCO and Bill Gates and various liberals. Christian, constitutional, conservative and family values seem to be missing or downgraded substantially. Documented communist & United Nations goals are being woven into CC.
10.No Recourse: Parents, students, local School Districts and teachers seem to have no recourse or ability to challenge Common Core methods. School Districts are said to have flexibility, but not if they want their students to pass the centrally developed exams written by the two liberal controlled testing firms, PARCC (Florida uses it) and “Smarter Balanced”. The Federal government gave $350+million to the two firms to develop the computerized course exams. Parents should demand to review any and all textbooks or documents used in Common Core classrooms.
Created by Vance Jochim
See the entire 35+ page Factsheet on Common Core at: www.tinyurl.com/HaltCommonCoreNow It lists both objections and supporting sources for Common Core, including videos, articles and website links.