I don’t know if the stupid stick has hit the Goldwater Institute.
I don’t know if Tea Party is capable of recognizing facts when they see them.
But I do know this: both are lying to Arizona about Common Core.
They insist this is a “nationally imposed” standard, and a trick by President Obama to take over education.
Both are lies.
Common Core is a set of standards for schools that was developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers–in other words, by governors and school officials in the 50 states who wanted to IMPROVE the learning of students.
So the very premise of the opposition to Common Core is a lie. What else are they lying about?
I’ve read articles that note the Tea Party is spreading the rumor that Common Core is a clandestine attempt “to turn students gay.” That it’s a way to make this a “Moselm Nation.” That it’s part of a “communist conspiracy.”
They don’t say those words out loud in public, because they know they’d be laughed out of the room, but this is what they’re saying in private to gin up hatred for Common Core.
The Arizona State Board of Education–yes, the board appointed by the Arizona governor from Arizona citizens with an interest in education, which is about as “local” as one can get–adopted Common Core in 2010. Since then, School districts throughout the state have spent millions getting the new standards in place and training teachers.
What has been the result? One testimony after another that schools are seeing an INCREASE in the learning of students. Parents praise the “deeper learning” they see in their kids. They see their children learning, not from rote memorization, which is a shallow way to teach, but with more problem solving techniques.
So when the Goldwater Institute and the Tea Party say they want to go back to the way it was in 2009, before the Common Core standards were adopted locally, they’re saying they want to go back to the rote methods; the old methods that weren’t good enough for our children to learn at their best.
But listen to Goldwater Institute’s “education director,” Jonathan Butcher, who’s quoted in today’s Republic saying ‘I believe the Common Core is lower than the standards we had before.”
Well, Mr. Butcher, I believe you’re simply being stupid. And deceitful.
Although the Arizona Senate killed two bills to do away with Common Core, Butcher has vowed to carry on and keep up the attack. He’s got allies in Tea Party leaders. So expect this issue to stay on a front burner.
This is a good time to remind every parent of a school child and every teacher who didn’t vote in last fall’s election that this is the kind of lunacy you get when you fail to elect people who actually know what they’re talking about.
In this case, you get liars.