Keep up the Resistance to Common Core in Pennsylvania

In my last post, I explained the origin of the Common Core educational standards that are being imposed on all American students and I enumerated the problems with the standards.

As a school director, I already have seen firsthand the push for school districts to comply with the imposition of Common Core standards here in Pennsylvania.  I am resisting the pressure in my district, but need other districts to ask the Pennsylvania Legislature to stop Common Core.

The Commonwealth approved the adoption of a modified version of Common Core in 2010 that included some of the more rigorous curriculum Pennsylvania already had, but Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, recently delayed the implementation of Common Core because of the controversy around them. Last week, the Corbett Administration announced some limitations on Common Core.  Among the changes made that were based upon concerns in the Legislature are bans on a statewide curriculum or reading list, restrictions on imposing “national” assessments, and protections for student privacy. 

The resistance to Common Core in Pennsylvania is thus having some success.  The changes made by the Corbett Administration are welcome, insofar as they represent the exercise of state sovereignty and limit some of the substantive harm from Common Core, but do not stop the imposition of the standards and their overall weakening of education in Pennsylvania.  School districts are continuing to prepare to implement the standards, which are expected to withstand the current opposition in the Legislature. 

We conservatives in the Keystone State need to keep the pressure on state legislators to stop Common Core before it is too late.  I call upon the General Assembly to approve the bills that would fully stop Common Core in Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania can and must do better than Common Core.