Report: Right-wing extremists use Common Core attacks to undermine public education

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

Sigh...

Does this mean that I have to support the Common Core...

...or fall into a trap laid by the far right to bring down public education?

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen!

BTW:

My ranting and raving about the CCSS is based upon its improper use as an evaluation tool to undermine the seniority rights of teachers. That's where my "conspiracy theory" lies.

The actual CCSS...

...haven't read them, never will.

Oh, I "spot read" them and they were reminiscent of the Illinois Learning Standards...

...jokes in their own right. A bunch of number and letter mumbo jumbo that only the never-in-the-classroom authors could understand. Teachers were left to their various interpretations of what the hell it all meant. (And don't even get me started on trying to write effing lesson plans "tied to the standards". Alphabet and numerical soup.)

I waded through the Kindergarten CCSS and that was enough silliness for me. (Talk about needing a reality check!)

Yes, I "clicked my heels" about Indiana dumping the Common Core...

...to be replaced by their own state standards.

In reality, ain't gonna be no substantive difference...it's all politics.

That said...

...any bad news for the Common Core is good news for much-maligned teachers who are having tenure taken away so that school districts can hire relatives, friends, or cheap labor and get rid of union leaders who stand in the way of their mistreatment of employees. Wanted: Cheap sheep!

Speaking of politics...

There's an old saying that "all politics is local"

Well, the same is true of education...

...success or failure will be determined in the trenches - in each building, district, and community. State standards, national standards? So much smoke and mirrors.

Back to Indiana's rejection of CCSS...

...apparently the new "state standards" are very similar to the Common Core (and the state standards that came before "Obamacore".)

To paraphrase William Shakespeare: