Common Core, our kids, our state’s future, and surrender by the NCGOP establishment

 

Recently, I’ve been subjected to some insinuations that my Christianity and my conservatism are in question because I dare to raise questions about the leadership of the North Carolina House of Representatives.  In fact, this little gem has been circulating lately around Facebook.

If you read the linked article, you will see that the author — apparently a devout Christian, a homeschooler, and grassroots activist — is very, very impressed with House  Speaker Thom Tillis.  Why, you ask? Tillis was nice to her kids.  That’s nice.  In fact, that’s the very least we should expect from Speaker Thom.  He ought to be nice to everybody’s kids.

Ms. Brown, the author,  should take her kids’ lesson about state government one step further, and explain to them how Mr. Tillis was NOT VERY NICE to Mr. Pittman and Mr. Brawley. 

The problem that I — and many other North Carolinians have — is that Speaker Thom doesn’t stand for anything.  He presides over a caucus that preaches unabashed conservatism to the “sheep” out in the hinterlands, then turns around and stabs those same sheep in the back with watered-down weakness that is often a lot less than what got promised at election time and not that far off from what the Democrats wanted.

Judging from her article, Ms. Brown is very passionate about home schooling.  The federal common core curriculum appears to be quite a threat to public school students AND homeschoolers.  North Carolina became one of 45 states to adopt the curriculum in 2012 —  while ol’ Thom was speaker.

In the 2012 elections,  common core foe John Tedesco (R) ran a spirited, but underfunded race against big-government common core-coddler June Atkinson (D) in the DPI superintendent’s race.  At times, polling showed the race to be very close.  But NCGOP funneled most of its resources to Mitt Romney and Pat McCrory.  Team McCrory did next to nothing to help Tedesco along.  Atkinson got reelected, and common core is rolling right along.

Go back and watch state Rep. Larry Pittman’s televised briefing to the Tea Party.  Pittman, on camera, expresses frustration with the enthusiasm Speaker Thom’s hand-picked education committee chairman shows for common core.

Here’s an interesting piece about how common core will impact homeschoolers:

The Common Core is being introduced into the PUBLIC school, so if I’m homeschooling, I don’t need to worry, right?

WRONG.  The CC is being adopted by 45 of the 50 states, including the District of Columbia, and it’s goal is NOT educational excellence.  One look at the standards and examples that we detailed in our previous post will undeniably confirm that.  The goal of Common Core is CONTROL.The government is seeking to Nationalize educational standards, which goes COMPLETELY against that 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which outlines education as being within the scope of the State government, not the Federal government. If the States decide not to adopt CC, they will not be granted federal dollars, so although it’s not a mandate, it’s a mob version of law via monetary coercion.

Furthermore, homeschoolers will eventually need to meet the same educational standard and use CC approved/aligned curricula because the SATs, State tests and GEDs will all be modified to fit the new CC standards.

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Although it’s true that homeschoolers traditionally, on average, test significantly higher than their publicly educated peers, this is not a safeguard given what is coming down the pipeline in terms of change.   Standardized testing is slated to be reformatted and rewritten, so we’re talking about a totally different measure of scope and sequence.For example, math problem, as formed by the CC, are based on mental and verbal math; the emphasis is now on the process, not the answer.  Eventually, CC-educated students will be asked to verbally explain their method for solving the problem, regardless of whether or not the answer was correct.  If your homeschooled Senior can successfully complete complex mathematical algorithms but he is unable to explain how he got his answer, he will not pass.

Additionally, the literature requirements are changing significantly.  Non-fiction manuals are now required to compose 70% of your child’s “literature” by the time they graduate.   Here is a sample of thesuggested reading within the CC:

• Petroski, Henry. “The Evolution of the Grocery Bag.”
• California Invasive Plant Council. Invasive Plant Inventory
• Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/U.S. Department of Energy. Recommended Levels of Insulation
• FedViews by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Calishain, Tara, and Rael Dornfest. Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching, 2nd Edition
• Fischetti, Mark. “Working Knowledge: Electronic Stability Control.”
• U.S. General Services Administration. Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management
• Gawande, Atul. “The Cost Conundrum: Health Care Costs in McAllen, Texas.”

As enlightening as they may be, we’ll be tossing out many of the traditional classics in lieu of “The Evolution Of The Grocery Bag”.  Therefore, as homeschoolers, if we haven’t been reading the above list with our Seniors, they have no hope of passing the SATs or GEDs, because we’re talking about two completely different lists of topics and material.

But as a homeschooler, I get to choose my own curriculum, so it’s my decision what my children will read and study. 

True, for now.  However, I was disheartened to see that many large homeschool publishers have already, or are planning to, rewrite their curriculum in order to meet CC standards.   For a very thorough and growing list, check out the curriculum updates on The Educational Freedom Coalition.

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One national media outlet discovered a common core-approved textbook that identified the 9-11 hijackers as “poor Afghanis” who were driven to do what they did because of insufficient foreign aid to Muslim people around the world.  *NICE.*

The list of stuff the state House has gone soft on is growing exponentially:  voter ID, tax cuts, toll roads, immigration, repealing the Racial Justice Act, and now — apparently — common core.  Thom Tillis and Pat McCrory TRIED to go soft on fighting ObamaCare, but fierce pressure from the grassroots helped them, um, ” see the light. ”  Public education is a godawful mess.  This common core fiasco will deliver the coup de grâce.  

Electing Republicans in 2010 and 2012 was only the first battle in a long war to save our country and our state from the tyranny of big government.  It’s not about protecting the Republican Party.  It’s not about cult of personality idol worship of our favorite political celebrities.   It’s about starving the bureaucratic beast that is killing our economy and destroying any hope for our kids’ future.