Pat McCrory endorses Common Core
It’s getting harder and harder to defend our new Republican governor here in North Carolina.
First, we were told that we need to leave ObamaCare alone, because it is “the law of the land.” Then, we get some hand-wringing about the size of tax and spending cuts associated with the state budget. Then, there was a veto threat of proposed abortion clinic regulations under debate in the legislature. Now, Gov. Pat McCrory has put himself at odds with Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (R), the Tea Party, and — some say — the NCGOP platform:
Gov. Pat McCrory outlined his plans for education Thursday, including a proposed $30 million innovation fund that would reward 1,000 top teachers with $10,000 stipends.
He also called for a sharp reduction in standardized testing in North Carolina classrooms and pledged his support for the Common Core learning standards that have been a target for conservative critics, including Lt. Gov. Dan Forest.
[…]
“Education is more than testing, pay scales and rankings,” McCrory said. “It’s about unleashing teachers and focusing on outcomes that will produce highly qualified workers for well-paying jobs.”
Is that what Common Core does? Lt. Gov. Forest — a pretty smart guy in his own right — has concerns about the potential costs of implementing common core, as well as the administration and content of the curriculum itself. Forest went so far as to release twenty pages of detailed questions on Common Core he wanted DPI secretary June Atkinson to answer for the state Board of Education.
Let’s hear some more from Gov. Pat on all of this:
The governor expressed his approval of the Common Core State Standards on reading and math, which have been adopted by 45 states but have recently been bashed by some conservative commentators and state legislatures. McCrory said the standards are high and relevant.
“It’s not the standards that are bad; it’s the execution which must be improved here in North Carolina,” he said.
State Superintendent June Atkinson said she is glad McCrory supports the Common Core standards. “It is important for our teachers and communities to recognize that they are rigorous standards and we need to move forward.”
Oh, good. Now, our Republican governor is on the same page with June Atkinson — who even Bev Perdue didn’t take seriously.
It’s arguable that McCrory’s position on Common Core puts him at odds with Article VII of the 2013 NCGOP platform.
Who is McCrory’s education advisor? Is s/he a Democrat? I remember when the extremely liberal (and extremely hated) county school superintenant in Lee County claimed in the media that McCrory had offered him the position and he turned it down because it did not pay as much as his current gig. McCrory’s spokesman refused to confirm or deny that the offer was made, which suggests it had been. The same dude was extremely controversial as superintendant in Beaufort County as well.
McCrory is getting some extremely bad advice from somewhere to endorse this big government ”Common Core” turkey.
Nobody answered so I looked it up myself. McCrory’s education advisor is Eric Guckian from Charlotte, and with a Harvard degree:
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/newsroom/press-releases/20130510/new-senior-education-advisor-joins-governor-mccrory%E2%80%99s-administration
A state board of elections search shows that he is registered Unaffiliated. So, he is NOT a Republican. We should have guessed.
First off, you can be conservative and registered UNA. That’s not the problem with Eric Guckian.
Here’s the problem. He’s in with Obama’s gang.
He was appointed in 2008 to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to be its director of the New Leaders for New Schools partnership. NLNS was headed by Jon Schnur. Schnur “advise[d] the Obama for America presidential campaign, serve[d] on the Presidential Transition Team, and serve[d] as a senior policy advisor to Secretary Arne Duncan.”
In addition Schnur served in the Clinton-Gore White House.
Also, Guckian was the NC director of Teach for America, an organization that spawned the leftist Michelle Rhee, head of StudentsFirst. the TFA model is similar to the reform model of education pushed by Bill Gates.
Thanks for the additional detail, Ann. What is a dude like that doing in a Republican administration?
It seems to me, after 40 years of improvements, we’ve fallen further, and further behind. Now the Governor of my own great state has signed on to Common Crap. A Governor I helped elect, that’s supposed to be a member of my party.
Pat, Karl Marx would be proud, but I can tell ya I ain’t. Not at all.
I like the idea of common core because it has the ability to hold some schools accountable, as does Title 1. Who wants to see any kid in a bad school. Ask any public school teacher and they will tell you that it was implemented wrong. More importantly though it is a slap in the face to Dan Forest who has legitimate concerns about it and who takes education seriously.
When are people going to figure out that we have only one party, the Government party?
McCrory is thumbing his nose at our platform and “We the People” as are most of our elected officials. I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime.
If McCrory was in Washington, he’d be on Ted Cruz’s squish list….there’s three years to find a credible conservative primary challenger to McCrory. More importantly, people who don’t pay attention think McCrory is a conservative because he’s a Republican and, oh yeah, WRAL says he’s a conservative. Until we spread the word that McCrory is a thinly disguised liberal hiding amongst the supposedly more conservative group of people in this state, people aren’t going to figure out anything, to answer your question.
Maybe Gov. McCory received a phone call from Jeb Bush, major driver of Common Core (receives funding from Bill Gates Foundation)? Yep, one party, big government R or big government D pathetic
Did he even bother to discuss this with Lt. Gov. Dan Forest who has actually been looking into the details of CC? Gov. McCory fired a shot across the bow, it will be interesting to see what Forest has to say next?
Was McCrory just looking for something liberal to sign off on to balance Big Media’s narrative that he was some sort of caveman due to the sensible legislation that the General Assembly just passed?
If so, he hasn’t learned what we all know…those people can’t be appeased short of full surrender and it’s futile to attempt to appease them anyway..
Gov. Pat McCrory needs to be recalled. He ran as a conservative, but governs as a democrat. I am not sure he is that much better then Perdue was.