http://labi.org/labi-news/labi-joins-statewide-coalition-urging-the-governor-and-bese-to-stay-the-course-on-common-core
There is one huge flaw in LABI's contention that most people of the state support Common Core. That is the fact that obviously there are many, many educators and parents who OPPOSE CCSS (and for many more important reasons than it represents high standards which is bogus) or Jindal would not be responding as he is in pushing back. And that is a powerful testimony because these parents and educators represent individuals with no powerful, highly funded (taxpayer and private) organizations like LABI and Stand For Children who pay lobbyists and newspapers with full page adverts.
The opposition is also coming from almost every state as evidenced by the fact that some states refused it in the first place and several have pulled out and several have decided not to use PARCC or SBAC. There is, in fact, an " uprising" against all that is Common Core and the full agenda around national standardization taking place that has gotten the attention of the media and the public.
Unions can be demonized, but the leaders of both national unions have sold out to CCSS for political reasons and their memberships are rebelling within the structure of those organizations. So the union card can not be played. Tea Party and other conservative objectors to what some characterize as a "federal takeover" have been excoriated as fanatics who don't know what they are talking about, but guess what, they have done their homework and risen up out of the complacency and malaise of the general public to speak out against what can be proven to be a privatization effort fully supported and funded by U.S. Ed's Arne Duncan WITH YOUR TAX MONEY. Teachers felt like prisoners who could not be let out of their classrooms to speak out at public gatherings and who actually fear for their jobs if they do in this UNITED STATES of AMERICA! Educators who know what teaching and learning are all about and that Lake Wobegone dies not exist in their PUBLIC schools.
The fact that the legislature did not produce enough votes to represent the true wishes of a large number of their constituency (who are awake and aware!) is NO indicator that they responded to the wishes of their constituency. Anyone who sat through the committee meetings for each bill that WAS filed saw the powerful and informative testimony of parents and educators against the same old empty rhetoric of the business and AstroTurf "education non-profits" acting as shills to their benefactors with deep pockets. But the power of the Senate and House Ed leaders and the members kneeling to Jindal for their own political gain cared not about what The People want.
The stronger and more informed we become in our determination to save our children and our public schools from the corporate elitists who generally send their own children to private or selective schools, and you darn well better believe that selectivity includes socio-economic and racial considerations. You will not find Common Core or high stakes national testing in THOSE schools!
So let LABI and BAEO and Chambers of Commerce buy their expensive public relations and denegrate teachers and tell the public the lie that our public school system is a failure. The louder they squeal the bigger they see the threat that truth and expertise will out over their lies and personal agendas. And it is sad, but gets no sympathy from me, that many of the business people they claim to speak for are being fooled and know nothing about the realities and truth of CCSS and the movement to shut down our democratically elected school boards and our commuĊity schools.
Yes, people have a CHOICE in our traditional school districts. They have the choice to support their teachers and their schools, to speak before their administrators and their school boards, to vote out or in whom they believe with work for the benefit of their children, to contribute their time and/or money to make their community school the best it can be and for their children to learn what life is truly like when they can't have everything their way so they become active citizens to make what they do have the best it can be. Or they have the choice to move or to put their children in private schools at a price or to home school. That is what democracy is supposed to look like. Hey - teachers have those same choices in determining their teaching positions and just as children can't usually choose their teachers, teachers can't choose their students. And life goes on with all of us taking responsibility for our choices rather than turning that responsibility over to a school or a politician or BESE or John White!
Buck up!!! Go back to your places of business and fix your OWN houses and let educators and parents fix our house! You have plenty of problems of your own creation without trying to tell us how to teach or how to MAKE children learn.
The opposition is also coming from almost every state as evidenced by the fact that some states refused it in the first place and several have pulled out and several have decided not to use PARCC or SBAC. There is, in fact, an " uprising" against all that is Common Core and the full agenda around national standardization taking place that has gotten the attention of the media and the public.
Unions can be demonized, but the leaders of both national unions have sold out to CCSS for political reasons and their memberships are rebelling within the structure of those organizations. So the union card can not be played. Tea Party and other conservative objectors to what some characterize as a "federal takeover" have been excoriated as fanatics who don't know what they are talking about, but guess what, they have done their homework and risen up out of the complacency and malaise of the general public to speak out against what can be proven to be a privatization effort fully supported and funded by U.S. Ed's Arne Duncan WITH YOUR TAX MONEY. Teachers felt like prisoners who could not be let out of their classrooms to speak out at public gatherings and who actually fear for their jobs if they do in this UNITED STATES of AMERICA! Educators who know what teaching and learning are all about and that Lake Wobegone dies not exist in their PUBLIC schools.
The fact that the legislature did not produce enough votes to represent the true wishes of a large number of their constituency (who are awake and aware!) is NO indicator that they responded to the wishes of their constituency. Anyone who sat through the committee meetings for each bill that WAS filed saw the powerful and informative testimony of parents and educators against the same old empty rhetoric of the business and AstroTurf "education non-profits" acting as shills to their benefactors with deep pockets. But the power of the Senate and House Ed leaders and the members kneeling to Jindal for their own political gain cared not about what The People want.
The stronger and more informed we become in our determination to save our children and our public schools from the corporate elitists who generally send their own children to private or selective schools, and you darn well better believe that selectivity includes socio-economic and racial considerations. You will not find Common Core or high stakes national testing in THOSE schools!
So let LABI and BAEO and Chambers of Commerce buy their expensive public relations and denegrate teachers and tell the public the lie that our public school system is a failure. The louder they squeal the bigger they see the threat that truth and expertise will out over their lies and personal agendas. And it is sad, but gets no sympathy from me, that many of the business people they claim to speak for are being fooled and know nothing about the realities and truth of CCSS and the movement to shut down our democratically elected school boards and our commuĊity schools.
Yes, people have a CHOICE in our traditional school districts. They have the choice to support their teachers and their schools, to speak before their administrators and their school boards, to vote out or in whom they believe with work for the benefit of their children, to contribute their time and/or money to make their community school the best it can be and for their children to learn what life is truly like when they can't have everything their way so they become active citizens to make what they do have the best it can be. Or they have the choice to move or to put their children in private schools at a price or to home school. That is what democracy is supposed to look like. Hey - teachers have those same choices in determining their teaching positions and just as children can't usually choose their teachers, teachers can't choose their students. And life goes on with all of us taking responsibility for our choices rather than turning that responsibility over to a school or a politician or BESE or John White!
Buck up!!! Go back to your places of business and fix your OWN houses and let educators and parents fix our house! You have plenty of problems of your own creation without trying to tell us how to teach or how to MAKE children learn.
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