A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article pertaining to my support of Common Core. Although not a very popular article in terms of page views, (it was one of my lowest, as a matter of fact) it did spark a certain amount of criticism that I feel I must once again elaborate my position on due to my editing of what I felt anyone who had an informed opinion on the matter would consider, if you'll excuse the expression, common knowledge.
One of the first things my critics called me out on (if you can believe it, because I'm still having trouble with it) was that the program is called Common Core. Claiming that the name itself was insulting and flirted with socialist indoctrination because it's framers dared to call our children "common". Once again, my fellow Observers, we've been thrown into the realm where we have to worry about what something is being called. So much for that no P.C. viewpoint that's become all the rave as of late. Seriously?!?!.... that's one of the opponents biggest concerns?... The name? It's just a word for crissakes. We use it every day, in case they didn't notice. You know, such as common knowledge, common opinion, common attitude, common idiot..... common sense. Do I really have to point out to these people that the name of the program reflects the common goal we should all have in our children's education, not the children the program was developed for? I suppose I do, since I just wrote it.
Putting the name aside, let's go over the educator facet. I had stated that most educators, including the second largest teachers union, publicly supported Common Core. Expressing that they felt a need for a national standard of guidelines to be put in place that would create a unified educational platform that would allow them to work together across the states and could also be modified to fit individual needs. On the other side of the playground, some are against it but the reasoning, to me, is muddled, unclear and riddled with contradiction. Although several polls, including Gallup/Education Week, have clearly shown educator support of Common Core to be consistently around 75% to 80% and an average of 73% have claimed to be enthusiastic about the program, opponents are insistent that teachers absolutely hate it.
Not wanting to get into the nitpicking that wasted hours of my life researching that I'll never get back and having no desire to take away any of yours, my loyal reader, I'll just go with what makes sense. The biggest gripes from educators that I have uncovered pertains back to the implementation of the program, not the program itself and even that is contradictory within those asked. Only 2% of superintendents felt that they were getting adequate support from the federal level to put the standards in place, but another poll showed 56% disagreed with that statement. One concern that seemed to have some credence is, that according to an National Education Association poll, only 23% of all teachers in high poverty districts believed that they were prepared to implement the standards. They also claimed that federal training was mediocre and that children may struggle with the new standardized assessment tests geared toward the Common Core standard due to shaky initiation. Unfortunately it turns out that the reasoning behind the concerns is far from anything as noble as the children. Especially since nearly 60% of teachers asked admitted that their worries about implementation was influenced mainly by the fact that their job evaluations were directly linked to those very same assessment tests. Parents and critics have been demanding that our system provides good teachers for our children and we must weed out the ones that are not meeting the task, but have issues with the Common Core program reviewing teachers on their performance regularly.... hmmm.... maybe that's the very reason why some educators and unions have a problem with it. I could be wrong, though.... Making sure a teacher is doing their job is probably not a good idea.
One final thought on the educator side. There is too much evidence to ignore that most educators believe that Common Core can work if given the time, tools, support, trust and certainty that the program will continue. A sad side to that statistic is that although 68% of teachers polled have claimed that they have sought out ideas and programs that would create deeper learning among their students, only 34% have obtained what they were looking for from their own school district or state. What makes little sense to me is that, even with that kind of track record, opponents of Common Core continue to want the state and local districts to have total control over education without any federal involvement.
Which leads me back to the criticism that Common Core is a federal takeover of our educational system. I still have trouble with this sentiment, but realize that it is just a red herring stepping stone that leads to the true agenda that opponents have who want to eliminate the Department of Education.
A department, according to critics, that is a newly created job making department that has no place in the federal government because there is no constitutional provision for education. They feel that the department should be disbanded and all the power of education should be returned to states and the states alone. Let's break this one down.
The Department of Education is new.
Yep... brandy, spanking new.... I mean, it's only been around since 1867. Now, I will concede that in 1868 it was demoted to an office and was not represented in the president's cabinet, but it still existed and our government felt that there was a need for it. It quickly became a bureau in just a couple of years and was attached to the Department of the Interior. In 1939 it was transferred to the Federal Security Agency that was upgraded to a cabinet level department in 1953 that was then renamed to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. How new does it sound now? I suppose what the critics are moaning about is that in 1979, President Carter separated education into it's own department that would oversee the transfer of the education related functions of the Departments of Health, Welfare, Defense, Justice, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture. Since education has been involved in our federal government for nearly 150 years, I think we should just let it stay there.
There is no constitutional provision for education.
Really?.... what about welfare?...."promote the general welfare". It's mentioned in the preamble, if critics haven't noticed. Wouldn't they consider our children's education a part of the "general welfare" of our citizens? Although the preamble is not considered constitutional law, I was just making the point that the framers of the constitution felt the welfare of it's citizens should be one of the federal government's main concerns. Most opponents of the Department of Education conceded the point of elimination due to the provisional argument in 1980 when President Regan failed to keep his campaign promise to get rid of the department. Supporting legal eagles proved the department was constitutionally provided for by the Commerce Clause and that the funding role of the department is covered under the Taxing and Spending Clause. Far be it from me to point out that most cabinet level departments were created and given power to via the United States Code not the constitution. Think about it for a minute. Did the architects of the constitution plan on providing for the Department of Transportation? Those horse and buggy traffic jams must have been hell. I'm sure they thought we would eventually need a Department of Housing and Urban Development with all those 17th century high rises going up, don't you think? They also must have had the clairvoyance to know we would eventually need the Department of Homeland Security, wouldn't you say? The United States Code has created the provisions for the Departments of the Interior, Commerce, Labor, Health, Energy and Agriculture to name a few more. So why not education? Especially since it has been involved federally before a lot of the existing departments we have today.
If successful, the elimination of the Department of Education would also eliminate that seat on the presidential cabinet. This one really ticks me off. Critics actually believe that our children's education does not deserve a seat on the presidents cabinet, but corn does. What about the income tax percentage for education we all pay every year? Are they going to do away with that as well? That would be par for the course, but highly unlikely. That fact alone prompts me to point out to critics that if you are going to use part of our taxes to fund a particular need, you have to have a department to regulate it. Otherwise give us all a break every April 15th and eliminate the tax. Send that back to state level responsibility as well. A little green colored bird is telling me that will never happen even if somehow the Department of Education is removed.
Hand in hand with the elimination of the Department of Education, conservatives are screaming the loudest to repeal Common Core. I wonder how many would be surprised to learn that Common Core was a Republican based initiative. Most of the GOP governors involved in the National Governors Association backed the program whole heartedly. The No Child Left Behind Act was another conservative program. Funny how those people that create some policy that turns out to be not what they expected, an utter failure or, even worse, a positive factor for an opposing party, become that subjects largest critic when it suits their needs. Speaking of suiting their needs, a lot of GOPers are toting statistics that America is 28th in worldwide educational standings and that we have to get rid of Common Core and the Department of Education in order to raise our standing on that front. What they are not telling you from that debate podium is that almost every single country that is beating the academic crap out of us on that rating has centralized, government mandated educational standards that monitors progress with standardized testing. It seems like some of our leaders and some that want to be could use some "new" math skills.
We have to ask ourselves that if it was so terrible and educationally controlling why was Common Core even implemented in the first place? Opponents are really good at flapping their lips over what's wrong with the program.... now. Where were they to cry foul when it was first offered? Didn't they read the policy first before they approved it? I should hope so. Isn't that what we pay these people exorbitant salaries for? You know, create policy, make law, read proposals, dot I's and cross T's? Ask them those questions and all the sudden they're shrugging their shoulders. Another question they can't seem to answer is why so many states are still using Common Core? It certainly isn't the pittance amount of federal money they're getting. It actually costs states more than what they're getting from the feds to use and maintain it. So why don't states just cut it loose and implement their own standards in it's place as they are allowed to do? It's not against the rules and several states have done it. Why haven't more states followed suit? Again with the shoulders up and down thing sometimes injected with an "I dunno". Maybe we should stop asking them and start asking ourselves. At least we might get an honest answer, especially if the best one we're going to get from them is "I dunno". And it's not just education that gets some of these people stammering to spit out an intelligent answer. Alternative fuel research, solar energy, unified healthcare, global warming are just a few of the issues and policies that we should all be behind for our common good, but are continually met with opposition, denial and "I dunnos". Usually because it's going to take money out of someone's pocket besides the common taxpayer and we can't have that, can we?
Education is no different. Although most of us all hope it won't be, education is just as susceptible to corruption as any other system. The sad truth is that as soon as you involve a governing body into any public program, be it federal, state, local or otherwise you open the door for corruption and you open it wide. Whether it comes from textbook manufacturers, lobbyists or Microsoft our children are subjected to carry the burden to have to succeed within that corruption. It may very well be true that our education system is at the mercy of corporations and lobbyists, but if we have a national standard that can allow us to monitor how our children are progressing and how our teachers are performing within that standard, I believe it's better than letting those same threats of coercion being able to operate unmonitored state by state.
So what exactly is so bad about Common Core? Shouldn't students be given an equal chance to learn a standard, graded criteria no matter where they live or how much money they have? Shouldn't teachers be reviewed and evaluated on how they teach our children? At minimum, aren't these things as parents we would want for our children? Shouldn't we be more concerned about religion trying to dictate school curriculum than our government trying to do so? Why is there so much controversy over an independently created educational guideline that was only adopted by the federal government, not made law? Too many questions that are being answered too loudly by critics in order to spread disinformation on the subject at hand and drown out the truth. Another thing I have to make clear is that although I support Common Core I know it's not perfect. I do not believe that it is the beginning and end all cure for our educational system, but it is a beginning to a unified education program that we should strive for. It's a step, not a perfect one, but a step up a long staircase toward something better for our children. Modifications must be made and must be allowed to be made as with all initiatives and policies in order for them to progress, but at least it is an effort to bring us all together to obtain a "common" goal. Maybe that's why so many have a problem with it. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to put away my riding crop.
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