While fellow Missourians were taking family vacations to Florida or simply enjoying a weekend or two at the lake, our state board of education members were busy lending a hand to the federal government by paving the way for a federal takeover of our Missouri schools. That’s right, by a vote of 5-1, state board members voted to formally adopt the new common core standards in math and English language arts. This is just the beginning of a national takeover of our schools. Keep in mind, with national standards come national tests to make sure states are following the standards. And as any good educator knows, in order to prepare for those new national tests districts will need resources such as textbooks, and “model” curriculum as the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is currently writing in order to be of assistance to school districts that can’t align their curriculum fast enough. I’m sure the federal government will provide the state with a list of “recommended” textbooks to use if they want to, in order to help us out. While Missourians were busy defending ourselves against unconstitutional health care mandates or worrying about oil spills, the federal government was quietly pushing states to voluntarily adopt these new standards.
Unless we as citizens of this great state stand up and say no more, the federal government will continue to push their mandates and reforms on us with the help of our governor and appointed state school board members. I urge each and every one of you to let state school board members know what you think of how they spent their summer vacation. After all, it’s your dime!
Do you know who the one dissenting vote was? I just emailed them, absolutely irritating because some of the Republicans on the board had to have voted for this. Completely clueless.
ReplyDeleteDebi Demien was the sole dissenter. 5 Board members voted in favor, 1 abstained and there is currently one vacancy on the Board.
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