Stop Common Core Now!

The Common Core educational standards are promoted by its proponents as state-led standards that are rigorous, like those of foreign industrialized States, and that prepare students for college and the workplace.  Nearly everything about these claims is false or misleading. 

Critics on both the left and the right are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of Common Core to the education of every American student and are working against them before it is too late.  Although there is some particular opposition to Common Core from the left because of its big business origin and its emphasis on standardized high-stakes testing, conservatives have also been alarmed by the spread of Common Core for both different and overlapping reasons.  Most of the conservative objections I enumerate in this post are shared by some liberals, although there is more emphasis from the right on the violations of federalism.  

Common Core is promoted by its proponents as having been promoted by the National Governors Association (NGA), but it was first started by big business interests, specifically the liberal Gates Foundation, then adopted by the NGA.  It thus represents “national” standards in all but name, as the name “Common Core” implies.  However, it reflects only the consensus of the States, and not necessarily the will of every State that is being forced into it.  Furthermore, by “State,” it is meant the “Governor,” not the legislatures that have never considered, let alone voted for Common Core.  Moreover, with support from the Obama Administration, the standards have shifted from being “national” to federal.  Either way, Common Core is being imposed in a top-down manner. 

The Obama Administration promoted Common Core by tying economic stimulus money to state acceptance of the standards through its Race to the Top competition for States to receive shares back of the money the federal government confiscated from their citizens.  In other words, Common Core is a federal mandate that violates the principle of federalism.  Not only does it violate States’ rights, but it eliminates local control.  Centralization makes improvement of the standards difficult, if not impossible.  The lack of state or federal debate and legislative action makes the imposition of Common Core undemocratic.  Textbooks are being written according to Common Core standards, meaning that all States will be forced to accept them, at least to some degree, even the handful of States that have opted out of them.  Furthermore, college-entrance tests and even the General Education Diploma tests are being re-written according to Common Core, meaning that all private or parochial schools and even all home-schooled students will be required to comply with them!  As some analysts have observed, there will be no escape from Common Core.

The substantive problems with Common Core are manifold.  Two main areas of concern are the inadequacy of the standards themselves and violations of student privacy.  First, it is necessary to explain the relationship of standards to curriculum.  Standards are the items students are expected to learn and levels of proficiency they are expected to reach, not the curriculum (the methods of teaching them).  However, given the comprehensive nature of Common Core and the materials associated with it and its specificity of particular methods, this particular set of standards essentially does amount to a curriculum, despite the claims to the contrary of its proponents, notwithstanding the fact that, as even with any written curriculum, teachers are left to determine the precise manner for carrying out instruction. 

Common Core is not as rigorous as its proponents imply, or as it should be.  It is not comparable with the standards in foreign industrialized States, as its proponents claim, nor is it even more rigorous than the standards in several American States and is even less rigorous than some.  In the subject of English, the emphasis in the curriculum based on Common Core is on non-fiction versus great literature, which discourages imagination, critical thinking and exposure to other ideas, periods or cultures.  In mathematics, the curriculum uses methods that have either never been used before or that have been unsuccessful, and it prepares students only for lower levels of algebra and discourages students from taking calculus.

Common Core weakens student privacy protections.  It makes students vulnerable to data-tracking, which reflects its origin in big business, as employers can track prospective employees.

Indeed, Common Core was created on behalf of big business interests by individuals that are neither qualified in curriculum-writing nor in their content areas, who are unelected and unaccountable, and who are intent on creating standards that serve the interests of big business.  The curriculum may be suitable for employment, but not necessarily for good citizenship, which is the purpose of education.  For example, Common Core prepares students for community college instead of competitive four-year colleges, as the promoters of Common Core imply, as well as tracks students individually for potential employment.

Naturally, there is also concern among conservatives about the enormous cost of adopting Common Core, which is estimated at billions of dollars across the Union.  

We conservatives should become educated about the standards and the curriculum that is based upon them.  Five States have opted out of Common Core and the legislatures of several others are also considering opting out or modifying the standards.  In my next post, I shall discuss the particular situation in Pennsylvania.   We conservatives must unite to oppose Common Core in every State of the Union and stop their implementation before it is imposed irreversibly, and if necessary, even partner with liberals who share our concerns to protect American students from the harm Common Core would cause.