Last week, Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) provided carefully-scripted public presentations on the Common Core. The simultaneous meetings took place in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. To learn more about DESE’s support of the Common Core, click here.
Each event followed the same order of events for
participants: sign-in, sit at a table, listen to presentation from DESE, discuss
at a table, listen to a pre-selected educator provide an overview of table
discussion to the entire room and adjourn. The event was scripted with careful
words; presenters were not able to comment or remark outside of the text
provided to them.
Our local presentation was in Marceline; Macon
County Patriots attended to learn more about the proposal. The “Common Core” is
not a new curriculum or test, it is standards in math and English that will
shape how the nation measures student performance. Four states have opted out
of the standards at this time.
It should be noted there were no outbursts or unprofessionalism
displayed by either side of the issue at the meeting. Many educators
were surprised there were so many concerns over the program. Many
citizens were surprised educators were not aware of or dismissed their concerns. The standards
were adopted by our state board of education, not the state’s legislature; the meeting allowed the public to address their concerns with the program in a tightly controlled manner.
In general, DESE worked through local educators and bureaucrats
to debunk claims that the Common Core meant more federal involvement in the
education system and less local control. Many educators like the Common Core
because the standards are higher, clearer and shorter than previous standards.
Concerned citizens’ main concerns included:
- The federal government’s further involvement in local education.
- The collection and distribution of student and family data.
- Funding, flexibility and copyrights as they relate to the common core.
These meetings (and they linked take on how they
went) occurred in Cape
Girardeau, Florissant, St. Louis,
Cape Girardeau, Springfield, Marceline, Camdenton, Warrensburg and Kansas City.
Homeschoolers have rallied around this
video as a call to action to ask states to opt out of the Common Core.
Concerned Women for America have asked concerned
citizens to support SB
210 in response to their concerns with the program. The bill asks DESE to
provide hearings in each congressional district on the subject, which may be
why the department held the meetings last week.
MO
Coalition Against Common Core is building a
speaker's bureau so for meetings with you can have them give a presentation at
meetings with groups that may be interested in the issue. Learn more here.
Rep.
Sam Graves has joined others concerned about the Common Core.
This
month, the Republican National Committee unanimously passed
a resolution against Common Core Standards and student data collection.
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