ALEC's Decision on Common Core Standards a Pig-Headed Decision?

ALEC's decision on the anti-Common Core standards issue

It's a decision that isn't really a decision.  

h/t Big Education Ape: American Principle's Project press release on the ALEC vote today on anti-common core standards legislation. 

Washington, DC – Today, the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), after considering anti-Common Core legislation introduced by the American Principles Project (APP), Goldwater Institute and the Washington Policy Center last summer, delayed a decision on whether to endorse the legislation until their next meeting.

 

“ALEC’s delay in endorsing the resolution is troubling and plays into the strategy of the multi-billion dollar private entities that are pushing the Common Core,” said APP’s Emmett McGroarty.  ”This issue has been before ALEC for almost a year.  The resolution was approved by the ALEC Education Task Force overwhelmingly last December, and ALEC has discussed it at three of its national meetings.  The well-financed private entities and the federal government are moving forward with their implementation of the Common Core, and Americans have been cut out of the process.”

 

Dr. Tony Bennett, the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, presented the pro-Common Core case to the board of ALEC.   Dr. Bennett is also on the Board of Directors of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the two trade associations managing the Common Core Standards (along with the National Governors Association).  Additionally, he is the Chairman of Chiefs for Change, an initiative of Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education.  The Foundation for Excellence in Education and CCSSO have received $1,000,000 and $70,000,000, respectively, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary force financing and pushing the Common Core.

 

Robert Scott, Texas Commissioner of Education, presented the case for the resolution to the board, which then deliberated behind closed doors.  State Rep. Dave Frizzell of Indiana, ALEC’s National Chairman, reported that the board found that there was much to like about the legislation but decided to send it back to the Education Task Force due to concerns about some of the language.  He stated that the board would forward the details of those concerns to the task force.

 

What is there to "like about the legislation"?  It's bought and paid for by special interests and controlled by special interests as well.  It's tainted and circumvents the legislative deliberations.  If ALEC likes legislation developed and controlled by special interests which is then foisted on the American taxpayer and taxpayers and states are mandated to live by those special interests' plans, that may tell us all we need to know about ALEC.  

 

Why should some "concerns about the language" kick it back to the Education Task Force?  If the process is rotten, it doesn't matter if the language is changed or not. 

 

It's lipstick on a pig.  Change the lipstick or the language, the educational reform model is still the same pig.   And that pig is getting fatter every day with Jeb Bush and Bill Gates money at the trough. 

pigheaded:

Adj.

1.

pigheaded - obstinate and stupid bullet-headed, bullheaded obstinate, stubborn, unregenerate - tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield

 

 

This Man Needs to Replace Arne Duncan. YES YES YES.

Forget fancy shoes, glitzy jewelry....my one wish?  I wish Missouri had Robert Scott as Commissioner of Education instead of our commissioner (Chris Nicastro) who supports all the initiatives from Arne Duncan, even though they are unconstitutional, unproven, untested and underfunded.  Scott, Texas Education Commissioner, is taking a stand against Duncan and the DOEd.  From the Washington Post:

.... the state education commissioner, Robert Scott, said the mentality that standardized testing is the “end-all, be-all” is a “perversion” of what a quality education should be. He also called “the assessment and accountability regime” not only “a cottage industry but a military-industrial complex,” and he attacked the Common Core Standards Initiative as being motivated by business concerns.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!!!!  He is so on target!  A constitutionalist and realist!  He understands the standards have little to do with education and more to do for businesses to make money off taxpayers and students. How is it that this brave man knows what many bloggers, national writers,  and think tanks are writing about every day with the same conclusion?  Why have other state commissioners been blind to the takeover of education by the Federal Government and allowed to sell out their states' rights to set their state educational standards/assessments?

Scott is brilliant in his stance but be sure to read the readers' comments.  As of this writing, the vast majority are solidly behind Commissioner Scott....and the support of Arne Duncan is quite slight.  Here is a sampling:

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Viva la revolution! Scott has nailed it:
 
"the mentality that standardized testing is the “end-all, be-all” is a “perversion” of what a quality education should be. He also called “the assessment and accountability regime” not only “a cottage industry but a military-industrial complex,” and he attacked the Common Core Standards Initiative as being motivated by business concerns."

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Hip hip hooray! Excitement is roused in my soul. I yield to Jefferson:

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/little-re...

I imagine that the following quotes could also relate to the collective institution of K-12 education and the perversion of this institution that we presently witness in regard to the testing mania:

"This institution [University of Virginia] will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
- Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, 27 December 1820[1]

"They [common-place books] were written at a time of life when I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to what-ever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way."
- Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Thomas Cooper, 10 February 1814[2]

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/follow-tr...

Cambridge Dictionary definition of beard, as in bearding above -- "to face, meet or deal with an unpleasant or frightening person in a brave or determined way”

Alas, some brave superintendents and Robert Scott bearding the authorities who churn out yet more decrees to deliver mind numbing tests (and prep) to our children in seemingly endless succession. Carry on.

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Yes, there are tests. I give the occasional quiz or test to my students. I also assess homework, projects, and classwork. That gives me a truer picture of their progress than our yearly state tests. My students come from many different countries, and for those who get ot THAT soapbox, they are here legally. They are still learning English, so the standardized tests that we give don't give a true picture of what they know. I challenge all those on the testing bandwagon to move to a foreign country and attempt to take a test in a new language.

Teachers don't mind being evaluated, it's the type of evaluation that is the problem. Children are individuals, not products that are easily compared. I have seen such a narrowing of what we are able to teach. Real, meaningful learning opportunities are lost because we have to teach children to fill in bubbles instead of teaching them how to think creatively or how to problem solve.

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Do we dare dream the tide is turning against the federal nationalization of education?  Can we ever hope to be delivered from data driven education?  Can we kiss Arne Duncan goodbye, if not now, in November 2012?  Can we nominate Robert Scott to assume a position (Secretary of the DOEd) with decreasing importance and power?