Common Core

                       
If you have been paying attention to education you now have heard about the Common Core. This new program will have the Federal government writing the standards with the local schools within the Commonwealths and States, writing the Curriculum. Of course if you remember your government they will be telling us that the local schools just cannot get the job done so the schools will give up curriculum writing to the Federal government. I know, you are just thrilled by that. Keep in mind that one of the things that the Feds want accomplishhed is the scanning of your children and everything they do in the classroom.
To date there is no set cost but undoubtedly as was the case with No Child Left Behing and Goals 2000 the cost factor will be within the Billions of Dollars range.
Our educational system is a mess. We no longer have classes dealing with a subject and level. That now causes us to have 2 maybe 3 teachers in the classroom and that drives up the cost. How do you teach under those conditions? You don't. Heck my understanding is that unlike when I taught, 1967-1999, we have people in the classroom who are assistants who aid the teachers in the classroom and maybe even teach. In addition the lesson plans, from my understanding, are no longer created by the teacher, they are printed by a company and sent to the teacher. Boy, that will help you brain to circulate with lots of ideas.
We are walking in to a real mess with Common Core. There are states, Texas for one, that have opted out. Here in PA, Governor Corbett is not one hundred percent on it. A number of weeks ago he froze the Core but left the door open so he could re-enter when the State Assembly goes on vacation on July 1. We need to stop this now particularly when you consider that the top math level is going to be Algebra 1.