Big business interests that want Common Core imposed will unleash an advertisement campaign to blunt the momentum of conservatives and grassroots parents across the country in their efforts to stop the implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards.
The top-down implementation of these “standards” will dumb down education, take away local control of education, and empower “big data” and the education bureaucracy, opponents say.
According to a Politico report, in an “urgent effort” that “stems from a sense among supporters that this is a make-or-break moment for the Common Core, which is under siege all over the country,” a “coalition including the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a national advertising blitz Sunday targeted at Republicans skeptical about the standards.”
The spots will reportedly feature people touting Common Core and trying to convince Americans that it will not be a federal takeover of the education system. Local Chamber of Commerce leaders have also been telling their legislatures that implementing Common Core is now their “No. 1 issue.”
The business community has won small victories in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin, and they think they may be slowly turning the tide against Common Core’s opposition. The Business Roundtable is also working with “governors, committee chairs, House speakers, [and] presidents of Senates” to counter opposition to Common Core.
But as Politico notes, Common Core opponents are not backing down:
Within days, Indiana will very likely become the first state to officially scrap the standards, though it is far from clear that they will be replaced with anything too radically different. Bills to undermine the Common Core are pending in at least a half-dozen other states as well. Major conservative organizations such as FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have jumped in to help guide and grow the grass-roots opposition. And teacher unions, though they still back the standards in concept, are warning that their implementation has been badly botched.
Public opinion is turning against Common Core. (Though a plurality of voters favor Common Core when asked in general terms, a plurality of those who are specifically aware of the standards actually view them unfavorably.) The sentiment on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook “pulse with outraged posts from parents who blame the Common Core for saddling their children with incomprehensible homework, poorly written textbooks and nonsensical approaches to teaching basic concepts like double-digit subtraction.”
Even liberal education scholar Diane Ravitch, who has railed against the privatization of the nation’s schools, opposes Common Core:
Such standards, I believe, should be voluntary, not imposed by the federal government; before implemented widely, they should be thoroughly tested to see how they work in real classrooms; and they should be free of any mandates that tell teachers how to teach because there are many ways to be a good teacher, not just one. I envision standards not as a demand for compliance by teachers, but as an aspiration defining what states and districts are expected to do. They should serve as a promise that schools will provide all students the opportunity and resources to learn reading and mathematics, the sciences, the arts, history, literature, civics, geography, and physical education, taught by well-qualified teachers, in schools led by experienced and competent educators.
Another reason I cannot support the Common Core standards is that I am worried that they will cause a precipitous decline in test scores, based on arbitrary cut scores, and this will have a disparate impact on students who are English language learners, students with disabilities, and students who are poor and low-performing.
Sensing this change in sentiment, the Chamber of Commerce declared it would “significantly support” campaigns for Common Core in 2014.
“Of course the states should adopt and implement the Common Core educational standards, which the Chamber significantly supports,” Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue declared during his 2014 State of American Business address.
As Breitbart News has documented, “Common Core has lowered test scores in various states, and teachers have complained that Common Core makes students into ‘machines’ and ‘robots.'” Breitbart’s Dr. Susan Berry has also reported that the Chamber of Commerce has joined with teachers’ unions and the Obama administration to push Common Core, just like they have with labor unions on amnesty. As more discover what Common Core is, they are considering abandoning it for homeschooling options if the standards are forced on their children.