What you shold know about Common Core - a.k.a. Obama Core

Common Core – A.K.A. ObamaCore

 www.stopcommoncore.com

• Common Core was funded by a 5 BILLION dollar provision in Obama’s 2009 787 BILLION stimulus package, of which, $ 4.6 Billion is intended to entice the State into taking the bait to implement Common Core. However, it has been estimated that it will cost the States approximately $ 16.4 Billion to fully implement the program. The other $ 400 million is apparently the FEDERAL Government’s cost of selling the Common Core to the States, INCLUDING paying David Coleman, an architect of the Common Core, $ 750,000.00 a year to push the program onto the States.

• Common Core is part of Obama’s “Race to the Top”. If you do not have Common Core, no money from the Fed’s

• Common Core was designed with the help of the GEROGE SOROS funded Apollo Alliance.

• The General Electric Foundation has contributed $ 18 million to the Common Core. Robert L. Corcoran, The President and Chairman of GE Foundation said they were supporting the program “to obtain real and lasting change”.

• The Obama Administration claims it was developed by the States and adopted by the National Governors Associations and by the Council of Chief State Schools Officers. However it was actually produced by the Obama Administration. The $ 4.6 Billion of taxpayers’ teaser money, together with the Federally-paid for facilitators, has gotten 45 States to accept it and to pretend that it was generated by the States. HOWEVER 5 States, led by Texas, have opted OUT of Common Core and opposition is growing rapidly.

• The Common Core is the basis for a national curriculum and national tests, even though Federal Law PROHIBITS the US Department of Education from exercising control over the States’ Academic curricula, their programs of instruction or their selection of instructional materials. Obama violated (“circumvented”) that Federal Law, by making “Race to the Top” and “No Child Left Behind” Federal funds contingent on accepting Common Core. This threat to withhold Federal funds appears to be unconstitutional coercion of the States under the test laid down by Chief Justice Roberts in Florida v. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

• The US Dept. of Education is funding development of the national tests to align with Common Core. Whoever controls the tests will control what must be taught in the classroom. The Common Core is a nationwide initiative designed to force the States into national K-12 standards and national tests. This herding the States into the program ultimately will lead to a national curriculum and prevent curriculum input from local parents, taxpayers, and educators. Proponents insist that the Common Core initiative is “state-led” and “voluntary,” and that the national standards are “rigorous,” “internationally benchmarked,” and designed to make our students “college and career ready.” They insist that the States are not surrendering control over their standards and curriculum by adopting Common Core and that the Federal government is not behind this effort. In fact NONE of these statements is TRUE !

• The Federally controlled one-size-fits-all Common Core freezes in place unacceptable status quo and prevents innovation to meet the challenges of the future. It amounts to education without REPRESENTATION, in violation of the principles laid down by our founders in the Constitution. These principles provided for individual freedom, personal responsibility, LIMITED government and powers NOT specifically granted to the Federal government or prohibited to the States, are left to the States. The founders intended that education be left to the States and local governments and THREE Federal laws confirm this principle.

• The Common Core Standards are insufficient to properly prepare students for four year colleges. They do not meet the standards recommended by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel or those of our international competitors. In particular, certain portions of the Algebra and Geometry required by four year colleges are OMITTED. Algebra I is moved from 8^th grade to 9^th grade, making it difficult and unlikely that the school will be able to move a student through Calculus by 12^th grade, as is required by selective colleges. As a few other examples, the Common Core, eliminates decimals, percents, conversions between fractions and least common denominators and de-emphasizes division and algebraic manipulations. Dr. James Milgram of Stanford University, who was the only mathematician on the Common Core Validation Committee referred to the math program “as almost a joke to think students [who took Common Core] would be ready for math at a university.

• The Common Core English Language Arts has been described as “skill sets”, not a coherent and demanding English curriculum that will prepare a student for a four year college. Rather, the Common Core has beendescribed as preparing a student for a non-selective community college. Common Core has a requirement of 70% informational text to 30% literature, which English teachers say will not allow them to develop a proper college preparatory literature course. Dr. Sandra Stotsky of the University of Arkansas, served on the Validation Committee, BUT REFUSED to sign off on the ELA portion as being of “poor quality, empty skill sets, the de-emphasis on literature, and low reading levels, such as 8^th grade levels for 12^th grade students.”

• The Common Core has been described by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce as raising the bar. The Common Core has more accurately been described as the bar for the bottom students and lowering the bar for the top students. Thus none of the students wil be prepared to meet the rigors of a four year college curriculum, nor to compete in today’s competitive world. The Common Core does not meet the standards of today’s leading States. They will be required to dumb down their curricula.

• David Coleman, one of the architects of Common Core, became President and CEO of the College Board on October 15, 2012 and he announced that The College Board will use the Common Core to write the SAT’s, which may disadvantage those States that do not adopt it.

• THE COMMON CORE PROVIDES FOR A MASSIVE DATABASE on ALL school children. (Can anyone say NSA?). This part if the project is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, (Guess who gets to build the database and operate it – Microsoft ?) and is considered by many outraged parents to be the most insidious part of Common Core. The program calls for collecting 400 data points on the children from pre-school to age 20. The data will go beyond names, addresses, bus stops, grades, attendance, and include hobbies, attitude toward school, eye color, hair color, skin color, blood tests, birth marks, premature births and their families’ income, voting status, religion and politics. ( There are the SAME tactics and records kept in Nazi Germany by the Gestapo – read the book “The Gestapo – A History of Horror” by Jaques Delarue).

• The program also calls for FMRI’s (Functional MRI) which measures blood flow and heat in different parts of the brain, as well as digital wrist bands, eye movement sensors, and posture chairs devices to monitor the children at all times. Psychiatrist Harry Thompson, MD, felt that it would be very dangerous to have a data bank with information on students including the 400 data points and their brain waves.

• When Governor Rick Perry found out about some of the details of Common Core he took Texas out of it. Four other States including Virginia, Nebraska, and Alaska have followed Texas out of Common Core. However, there is a fear that they may adopt C-Scope, which is FAR worse than Common Core. South Carolina has a bill introduced to take that State out of the program and Governor Nikki Haley has strongly endorsed the bill. Minnesota refused to sign on to the math portion. Utah is holding hearings to consider withdrawing, Senator William Ligon (R-Brunsick, GA) introduced S.B. 167 to withdraw Georgia from Common Core.

 For more information go to www.stopcommoncore.com