Common Core Is a Power Grab

There is an important fight going on in our country today that is being under-reported by the media. Parents and activists are on the front lines every day fighting to save the quality of public education in this country; they are fighting to stop Common Core. 

It is disgraceful that the media isn’t doing more to report not only the failures of the curriculum standards themselves, but the horrible rollout of these standards in the states that have adopted them.

Unfortunately, Common Core standards are being rushed into classrooms all across the country and once again, parents are on the outside when it comes to the education of their children. Though they are technically being adopted on a state-by-state basis, Common Core is a set of federal standards, and it’s being promoted by the Obama Administration.

The standards are tied to assessments that are still in development and are supposed to be administered on computers many schools don’t have. With the implementation of No Child Left Behind under President Bush, public education has taken a sharp turn and become more about instruction, focused on performance on standardized tests, than ensuring students obtain and retain the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in life.

Recently major news broke in the fight to defeat Common Core that, odds are, most Americans haven’t even heard about yet. The nation’s largest teachers’ union is withdrawing its support of the Common Core academic standards. The New York Times has also highlighted early champions of these Common Core standards who are now speaking out against them.

You’d think that the new federally mandated education standards receiving criticism from the right and the left end of the political spectrum would get media attention, but no. On this important issue that is a critical component to the very future of this great nation, the mainstream media is completely silent.

It’s time for the media to break their silence and report the truth about Common Core and how it is detrimental to our nation’s education system. In 2014, the government should not unilaterally make a decision to fundamentally transform our education system without a debate that involves our nation’s parents.

This is a complete disgrace and just another instance in which the Obama Administration completely overreached with regards to its federal powers. Just as we had a national conversation about our nation’s healthcare system, so should we have had at least a conversation about Common Core before it was forced on our nation’s students.

America’s children deserve better than this, and the fight to stop Common Core is just beginning.