Common Core Standards are a federal program in which the federal government will define the curricula and the academic standards for each subject taught in the every school setting. These Federal Standards will basically eliminate local control of schools and provide unfettered access to curricula by the Federal Government and eventually, by the United Nations. To date, 46 states have adopted Common Core Standards. The cost for implementing these standards may require a new method of taxation that is more accommodating for federal control of the educational system.

President Obama’s federal program Race to the Top provides bonus points to states that institute common learning goals. Common Core Standards represent about $16 billion in new unfunded mandates. It imposes mediocre standards upon the states which must be accepted or the states are threatened with loss of present funding. Federal mandating of these standards bypasses any congressional scrutiny and the state legislative process as well as violating the public trust by preventing any school board, parental, or teacher approval of these programs.

The federal government has been encouraged to implement these standards by educational policy experts because, as A New Civic Literacy: American Education and Global Interdependence provided by the Aspen Institute explains, “decentralization of education (local control) makes educational change difficult to introduce.” Therefore, policy experts recommend that the federal government be given the responsibility to assure the implementation of global interdependence. Advancing global interdependence has replaced the original educational goal and that is why our schools are failing academically, but schools are succeeding to advance our population’s acceptance of surrendering our boarder, our right to secure elections, and respect for our founding documents.

Common Core Standards have been written for math and English and are currently being written for social studies curricula. The standards for this subject are key to the successful advancement of the social and political policy of global interdependence which these standards are intended to help implement. According to A New Civic Literacy the “students in our public schools constitute the nation’s greatest and most attractive sucker list. Everybody with anything to sell—a global perspective—would naturally like to get at this market of future American adults, and get them as early in life as possible.”  The document identifies teachers of social studies and the publishers of text books as key points of leverage. Because of the importance of this access to the American public, these policy experts defined education as “the most important subject we as a people are engaged in.”

Teachers, parents, and some legislators have been discouraging the implementation of Common Core Standards because the standards are weak. They eliminate oversight by school boards, teachers, and parents and any control parents and educators would have over what happens in the classroom. The Wall Street Journal reported on May 8, 2012, in “School-Standards Pushback” that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is concerned that these standards will “relinquish control of education to the federal government” and that Emmett McGroarty, executive director of American Principles in Action, called the standards “mediocre and costly to implement.”

Many are concerned that the Common Core Standards, once successfully implemented, will provide unfettered access of our educational system by the United Nations. Textbooks and curricula for our public schools have already been written by UNESCO and the International Baccalaureate program that is currently in many school districts across the United States. Grabbing additional access is a natural next step. Once they write the curricula, they must have authority to develop all testing tools. They will decide who becomes a teacher and what preparation will be provided for that teacher. The International Baccalaureate curriculum upsets parents and teachers because the focus includes sustainable development, abortion rights, gay marriage, universal disarmament and social justice curricula.

The UN involvement in the American educational system has already been facilitated by treaties signed by American presidents from both parties. Those documents include but are not limited to: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Treaty on the Rights of the Child, Civic Education: Classroom Connections, and Agenda 21.

 EdWatch.org published “Marc Tucker’s New Education Initiative” written by Professor Allen Quist in 2007 in which the professor explains that experts representing the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) seem to believe that it will be easier for the public to accept a new method of funding education once schools are burdened under these unfunded mandates. According to professor Quist, the NCEE suggests that regional development authorities be created and given power to tax removing all remaining local control of schools. Once the federal government has total control of education, what will happen to school choice?

For effective educational reform, citizens must unite around a single mission: eliminate federal mandates and federal funding of education and reallocate those funds to the states.

By: Karen Schroeder, President of Advocates for Academic Freedom

This article is provided courtesy of Advocates for Academic Freedom blog.

Here is a recent quote in an MSNBC ad by Melissa Harris-Perry, “We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had sort of a private notion of children.”   and “I believe wholeheartedly, and without apology, that we have a collective responsibility to children of our communities even if we did not conceive and bear them.”

 

Today Mellisa Harris-Perry was addressing her comments and she was confused on why her statements would cause such a controversy.     The reason is this:   It implies that the “community” or “collective” will raise and educate our American children better than individual parents.   That, Melissa Harris-Perry, is what makes parents upset.   Parents have seen “the village” and we don’t like what we see.

Parents also know  that, “the community”, “the collective”, “the village”, “the people” are words used in replace of the word – government.   Society is on a fast track to give up rights and freedoms to our government.    Why do people believe that our government will know what is best for our children and their future?

The following are some random quotes made by American People following Melissa Harris-Perry’s statement.    “I thank God for Melissa Harris Perry she has deep understanding of the conditions our children face when they go out to be educated.”       “It takes a village….”     “Children will not be yours forever….”    and lastly,    “People need to get rid of their backwards way of thinking and get clear on how the world is.  Educate yourself.”

Those statements are examples of people ready to give up their individual thoughts, rights, and freedoms to people in our government or ”the enlightened, educated society” (said with much sarcasm).

How are we losing our rights in education?   The Common Core Standards take power away from parents, grandparents, and local schools.    All the power is in a small group of people.   They are selling our schools an educational reform and that has the potential to influence millions of children.     FERPA laws have been amended to by-pass parental consent on data sharing.    Millions of children will have their personal information shared, discussed, and sold among government agencies and private companies.    I do not believe that “this collective” has my best interest at heart.   I think the Common Core is just another method to have more money, more power, and more influence.   These people are opening their greedy arms to an entirely new market – Our American Children.

Hands Off My Kids!

I am writing to you because I am very concerned about the national reform called the Common Core Standards.   I am a homeschool mom and this reform scares me.  Common Core has the potential to make huge changes and consequences to our homeschool families.   Let’s take a look at five ways this can affect us.

Currently, there are 45 states that have accepted the Race to the Top Grants to implement the Common Core Standards.   Wisconsin is one of those states and has accepted 22.7 million dollars. The HSLDA has taken a strong side against the Common Core Standards.  They believe that this is a push towards nationalized education and a national test.   Considering that 87% of our students are under the mandates of Common Core, homeschoolers and private schools will be the only groups standing against the movement of a national curriculum and test.   There will be continuous pressure for homeschool families to participate in these tests.

The loss of power at the local level is also a concern.   The state of Wisconsin is now participating as a large consortia of 45 states.   Each state is giving up their local power to work in this network.    It is only a matter of time before Wisconsin will rewrite the state’s homeschooling law to agree with the collective.     Chances are the national law will have more requirements for homeschoolers rather than less.

The Obama administration has shown little willingness to help the freedoms of homeschoolers.   Recently, Eric Holder has been quoted, “There is no fundamental liberty to homeschool.”  The German Romeike family has come to America to seek the right to freely teach their children as they see fit.   They came to America looking for asylum and the Obama administration is showing signs that they will deport this family.   Will Eric Holder use those same words towards American homeschoolers?   Those words are a slippery slope and homeschools are sliding in the wrong direction.

Another concern is purchasing curriculum.  I notice all the advertisements on the materials meet the new Common Core Standards.   This movement is so strong that it has even embedded itself into homeschool teaching materials.   We are unaware of the consequences that an unproven, untested set of standards will have our our children’s education.   Yet, a homeschooler can not pick up and educational magazine, shop at a school store, or order materials from a reputable company without the words Common Core plastered all over it.   One homeschool mother has dedicated an entire website to educating parents on what materials use Common Core Standards.   Each day I read blog posts about homeschool families that are concerned about Common Core.   I am not surprised by this.   We are ususally the first defense to protect children’s rights and their educations.   This is a war on the American family and the freedom to choose what is in the best interest of our own children.

Lastly, the SAT tests are a concern.  The tests are being rewritten to meet the Common Core Standards.  The College Board, which oversees SAT, helped develop the concepts behind the Common Core Standards.   The College Board was one of the orginal five think tanks that gave America this reform from the top-down.    Any homeschool student that wants to do well on his/her SAT will be forced to use curriculum that supports the Common Core Standards.

Fundamentally, the Common Core Standards go against every thing that I believe is good about American:  freedom, liberty, and individualism.   This is not the American way and it is not the homeschool way.

I have this yummy bag of jelly beans sitting on my desk.   It has 50 flavors in one little bag.   My personal favorite is cherry.  It is the perfect blend of a tart, juicy fruit.  I love it.   Therefore, I am going to set a new mandate and reform all jelly beans.   Jelly bean bags will be filled with cherry, cherry, or cherry.   This is a simple metaphor for our education system today.  In Wisconsin DPI is just foolish enough to sell us bags of just cherry, cherry, or cherry jelly beans and they will spend millions of dollars to push those cherry jelly beans down your throat.

Recently, Wisconsin has thrown out the ability for local schools, local teachers,  the parents, and taxpayers to have input in our schools.    We are now in the age of top – down education reform.   The top includes the rich and the powerful, a small group of people making reforms for 87% of our american student population.  It is a “one size fits all” movement called the Common Core Standards.

Teachers train for years to learn different methods and techniques to use in the classroom.  The days of diverse learning and individualizing instruction are gone.   We trusted our teachers to find lessons to help the students in each class learn.  There was a lot of diversity in instructional methods and teachers would learn from one another.   Often a teachers method was related to their natural gifts.   Today we put our teachers in a box.   This next month my local school will be retraining the teachers to the common core math.    This new math has a very specific  methodology and technique.   The geometery is very controversial and failed in a Russian gifted and talented program.    Parents are frustrated when they help their child with math homework.  It is very different than the math most of us grew up with.  This new math is the cherry jelly bean of math.

So are you sick of cherry yet?