COMMON CORE, BIG BUSINESS, AND OBAMA ON SAME PAGE

Common Core has created a politic phenomenon unparalleled in recent history. It has gotten the right wing radical hate machine all in a tizzy. They don’t know what to do; Obama likes common core but so do they. To like something Obama likes is enough to drive them out of their Party; look at what happened to Charlie Christ and is happening to Jeb Bush.

I spent time reading some of the literature related to common core trying to figure out which way the political parties will eventually go. I support common core; it makes so much sense that there be some educational standard, a minimum, really, be established across the entire country. We all know that local school board control is ideal in theory but in reality is a disaster. To a certain extend, so is state control of education a disaster, as the north south divide clearly demonstrates, which is really a reflection of  regional influence as opposed to control by individual States. The regional difference is really more related to educational administration and not actual teaching; defunding of schools to trash public education for segregation or having the money directed to the well to do neighborhoods; it is racial thing of as they say in North Carolina, they are upholding “true” North Carolina values. Heterogeneity gives our country strength so we should not discourage it but this variety is inherently bad.  

There is in Common Core, what some see as a danger, which is the government by recommending a curriculum, is taking over curriculums that ignore certain topics. The people who object to Common Core on these grounds are the people who are often the reason I strongly support common core. Religion, the evil interloper in education, is central to the problem. For example, various Religious dominations want the child long enough to embed their brands of religion on young minds. In the Christian world, it some regions of the country it eventually takes the form of Biblical law over secular law with a vehemence equivalent to what we see in Islamic nations where Sharia law is enforced—the Taliban. They start weak and grow strong. Evangelical Christians demand a foot in the door. A classic example is the Hobby Lobby president with his “Museum of the Bible Curriculum” vote to be instituted in a single Oklahoma school district. He hopes the program will be placed in hundreds of schools by 2016 and thousands by 2017. This four-year course teaches the biblical narrative, history, and impact of the Bible on western civilization; that is Sunday school. They hope to avoid the restriction of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution; in other words, they want to thumb their noses at the Constitution and corrupt the curriculum.  

School boards, for example, approve the use of public school buildings for church services where they leave their wall hangings all over the place—you know—if the heathens only knew the truth hordes of them would willingly become Christians. For some, the wedge of fairness, which is the teaching both creationism and science, is only good enough if you don’t teach science. The result is denying climate change, evolution, and secular law; thus, are an ever-present danger to democracy.

Some teachers feel threatened by “Common Core” because students are tested; thus, revealing poor teaching techniques. Common core is related to the basics, the good old three “Rs” but it is also related to the good old teaching meritocracy. Unfortunately, misguided teachers unions protect poor teachers when they should be protecting tenure, which are the teacher’s rights to teach “Common Core” and not religion or politics or what ever, even if school boards would fire them if they don’t “handling of serpents” or blood transfusion are bad.

At the end of the day, I can only find one thing wrong with Common Core, which is the danger of big business stepping in” in to teach it for a profit—an excuse for privatization of education. To expose the shortcomings of public education to justify teaching the basics to sell the Common Core program weakens public education. A segment of big business, the business of education, will take advantage in their constant drive to weaken public schools, which already is the basis for impoverishing public schools; the basis of the voucher programs; the basis for closing the door on some students and not others; and paying lower wages to cut taxes. Historically, what happens to good government programs is they are taken over for profit. Just look at what the financial industry has done government guarantee loans for students. A look at the voting record of congress on this issue explains who is responsible.  

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