Common Core is a Catastrophe and Race to the Top is NCLB in Drag....So Says Bill Ayers.

 

Ayers refers to Race to the Top as "No Child Left Behind in Drag", is underwhelmed by education competitions, and takes Arne Duncan to task

Arne Duncan and the Obama Administration doesn't have Bill Ayers' support on the current educational blueprint.  From a meeting at Elgin Community College on September 25, 2013 are Ayres' comments at a reception:

The background noise makes it difficult to hear some of his remarks clearly but a posting at freepatriot.org has transcribed much of it.  What is clear is that Ayers states:

Race to the Top, in my view, is No Child Left Behind in drag.  It is a rebranding in fact the Secretary of Education said that himself.  He said No Child Left Behind has gotten bad press, so let's rebrand it.  How about Race to the Top?  Same idea.

and

On the standards, common core, (I know a lot of people and their motivations who wrote that).  I think it is a catastrophe.

There is a question on whether he says he actually wrote Race to the Top.  Read more here.

Below is a video of Ayers speaking in 2006 about the testing companies and pedagogy.  It's clear he is not a fan of the testing companies making money.  Is that the reason he doesn't like the current version of Common Core and Race to the Top?  It's clear he finds competition distasteful from the Elgin, IL video and this video (edited) from 2006:

Race To the Top, in my view, is No Child Left Behind in drag. It is a rebranding in fact the Secretary of Education said that himself.  He said No Child Left Behind has gotten bad press, so let’s rebrand it.  How about Race to the Top? Same idea. - See more at: http://freepatriot.org/2013/09/26/bill-ayers-common-core-disaster/#sthash.q4uQvee7.dpuf

He says there is a quest for a national curriculum and the textbook publishers will profit enormously from such a curriculum.  He also believes "teaching and learning is central to Socialism for the 21st Century".  He also says  What's sold to us in the United States is the idea we are free, that we were born free and that proclamation entangles us.  

 In a 2012 video he explains how community organizing at work, in schools, on farms, in shops, etc is where real change evolves.  He states how legislation comes from the people rising up and the president at the time reaches out to those groups for the change.  Does Ayers' criticism of Race to the Top and Common Core emanate from his belief that the president is not listening to his group?  That's the same complaint from the groups normally in opposition to the progressive left.  But really, what does he expect?  When you have a centralized system, there is no room for the people.  It's all about the system.  Maybe he is coming to the realization that he's been played.







A reader responds to the freepatriot.org posting:

I don't want common Core any more than I want Bill Ayers opinion.

Apparently Arne Duncan didn't want Ayers' opinion either.