Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Bobby Jindal has had enough of Common Core...

The Next Governor Who Wants Out of Common Core has Arrived – It’s Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal - IJ Review

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal once supported the set of educational standards known as Common Core, which are being used to benchmark everything from school curricula to college entrance exams.
Now, he wants to withdraw the state of Louisiana from the Common Core standards, whether the state legislature approves measures to do so or the governor himself begins the withdrawal process....

Recall that Common Core was not passed through Congress, but was implemented via backdoor by state governors to circumvent parental input and obviate local control over educational content and testing criteria.

The Common Core website explains how it is a privately backed, copyrighted set of standards that has been adopted by a consortium of testing and textbook publishers.

It has been backed by wealthy financier Bill Gates, who also stands to gain from a data-mining arrangement in conjunction with InBloom. The New York Daily News described this project as a drive to “create a national database” of children’s education records.

No wonder Common Core supporters didn’t want a public debate over these issues – one can imagine the parental backlash. That delayed parental backlash is taking place now, and it has been putting pressure on governors like Bobby Jindal to take action.

Bobby Jindal says he will get Louisiana out of Common Core test group, if Legislature won't

Jindal's withdraw from PARCC - and Common Core by extension -- is likely to play well with a vocal group of parents and lawmakers who have serious reservations about the assessment. Common Core critics, particularly those with conservative political leanings, believe the PARCC could cause Louisiana to lose control over its student data and risk children's privacy, since it will likely be used by several states. They also say the test will be expensive to implement, though its costliness is a point of contention with PARCC backers.

Pushback Continues: States Grow Increasingly Wary of Common Core - Heritage

...Oklahoma, too, is currently in a battle over Common Core. The state senate passed a bill earlier this month downgrading the state’s involvement with the national standards, although there is some difference of opinion as to whether it would fully remove Oklahoma from the standards, or merely change the name of the standards.

...Meanwhile, the Missouri House of Representatives passed their bill to find a Common Core replacement.

...Fifteen states have now made strides in halting or downgrading their involvement in the standards. Last month, Indiana became the first state to exit Common Core. This is promising momentum in the effort of states to reclaim their educational decision-making authority.