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.
