An education group associated with such extremist groups as the National Council of La Raza, and a slew of Democrat strategy groups, think tanks and activists are sure that if only Americans knew what the Common Core education policy was, they’d love it.
The education group called 50CAN released the results of a survey about education reform in America that had HuffingtonPost claiming that if the education policy was “explained” to them, Americans would realize that they love the idea.
The survey shows that most Americans really have no idea what Common core standards are even though some 45 states have already put such policies into place. The group’s survey found that 31 percent approve of the standards, 12 percent oppose them, but 58 percent don’t even know what they are.
50CAN insists, though, that if only Americans were better informed about Common Core that most would support the policy.
To prove this, the group points to its finding that 66 percent of the 6,400 respondents said that they support the main goal of Common Core; that we create uniform education standards throughout the country.
This is quite a loose definition of “proof,” however, because, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. That most people accept the general idea that standards should be uniform across the country does not naturally equate to a full acceptance of the specificity of Common Core’s policies.
An interesting aspect of this group is just who makes up its staff and board of directors.
On the board of directors, for instance is Delia Pompa, the Senior Vice President for the race-based group the National Council of La Raza–or “The Race”–a group widely known for wanting the American southwest “returned” to Mexico (often called the “Reconquista movement“).
The group’s President and Founder, Marc Porter Magee, has a long history of left-wing activism and connections to the Democrat Party. He worked for the Democratic Leadership Council, the Progressive Policy Institute and helped push the Partnership for Public Service, the latter a group that claims to be working to “revitalize” the growth of government and government workers.
Other staffers are associated with the Annenberg Schools, the Truman Foundation, one was an employee of the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Justice, and some have past connections to the more conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Another member of the board is Richard Barth, the CEO and President of the charter schools group the KIPP Foundation.
Finally, a telling finding in the survey says that fully 80 percent of respondents do not trust officials in the federal government to fix education.