Saturday, February 16, 2013

Common Core Bill Filed

We received this fantastic news from Jane Robbins.  Please contact your State legislator and and ask them to support S.B. 167.


Senator Ligon introduced the Common Core-withdrawal bill, S.B. 167, yesterday. Five other senators -- Barry Loudermilk, John Albers, Chuck Hufstetler, Hunter Hill, and Tommie Williams -- signed on as well. 

We now have about 3 weeks to get this through the Senate so it can be sent to the House. Please crank up your networks and generate phone calls to the Senate Education Committee and the Governor (phone numbers attached -- don't worry about calling the House for now). Also attached is a short summary of what's wrong with Common Core.

Nationally, the news was good this week. The Indiana Senate Education Committee voted 7-4 to send the CC bill to the full Senate, which will vote on it this coming Tuesday. (If you have friends or relatives in IN, recruit them to the cause!). Yesterday the Kansas House Education Committee held a hearing on a similar bill, and a bill has been introduced in Alabama with a slew of co-sponsors. This wave is building.

As always, we're grateful for your dedication.
Jane
 

 Here is an outline of Common Core

Common Core is a set of K-12 school standards, in English language arts (ELA) and math, that were developed behind closed doors by private interests in Washington, DC. The standards were then imposed on the states by the US Department of Education, which required states to adopt them to be eligible for Race to the Top stimulus funding. Adoption of the Common Core scheme in Georgia creates many problems:
1)      Georgia can no longer control what is taught in its schools in ELA and math;
2)      Georgia parents and teachers will have no recourse if they see that the standards are not working in the classroom;
3)      The Common Core standards are mediocre at best and will “dumb down” instruction in our schools;
4)      The national test that is aligned with Common Core (the PARCC test) will impose enormous costs on the state and on local school districts and will result in inequitable results for both students and teachers;
5)      The Common Core scheme also includes the collection of massive amounts of personal data on our students, which data will ultimately be shared with the US Department of Education and whatever other government agencies or private organizations it designates to receive the data;
6)      The amount of money it will cost to implement the Common Core standards and the PARCC tests will dwarf the $400 million Georgia received from Race to the Top; and
7)      Georgia will likely have no control over future standards (in science, social studies, and health/sex education) that will be imposed just as Common Core was – through the power of the federal purse.
Find out more information at http://stopcommoncore.com/