The following was published in the Rochester Times on August 1, 2013 and as Community Commentary in Foster's Daily Democrat on August 17, 2013
What is Common Core, and
why should you care?
Common Core is another
attempt by the Federal government to take over local control of our schools. It
is not unlike Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind. The newest program,
Common Core, is designed to ‘help align’ schools to have the same standards.
This was done by dangling the carrot of Federal money for the states who signed on.
Unfortunately New Hampshire received no federal funding through the
"Race to the Top" grant program. That means the financial
burden falls on the local communities. That sure sounds like
an unfunded mandate which is prohibited in the New Hampshire Constitution
under Article 28-a.
What is different
about Common Core? Bill and Melinda Gates have dumped almost $30 million
dollars to push these ‘standards’ into our states. Much of this curriculum that
has been implemented in states across the country,-has teachers and parents
concerned.
From a tax payer
perspective, standardized testing is expensive. Most standardized testing
is now done on computers. When computers need to be upgraded and or replaced,
who do you suppose would be getting most of that business? Microsoft, maybe? Who
is the Chairman of the Board at Microsoft? Yup Bill Gates. It’s a neat little
investment he made. The enormous cost to taxpayers is already driving some states to
abandon their commitment to these new nationalized standardized tests.
Many questions on these
standardized assessments have no worth in evaluating academic skills.
Instead the new assessments are a vehicle to collect private information on
children and their families. This has caused such a great deal
of concern for parents in other states, legislators are now
proposing legislation to re-instate privacy protections that were changed by
the Federal Government .
We all now know
that all data collected is going to be stored, forever. Questions that
are included in the Common Core Assessments: What is your bus stop arrival
time? What is your Health Condition? What is your insurance coverage?
What is your IP address? Do you live with your mother, stepmother, foster
mother, father, stepfather, or foster father? What is your religious affiliation?
What is the voting status of your parents? Why are they asking this? Have they
run out of 501(c) 3’s to audit?
For a complete list go
to:
This information can be
used by any government agency for any reason at any time. It can and will
affect your child college and career choices. I feel it IS a violation of
privacy.
Once CCSS is
implemented, you can’t just have a conversation with your child about only
answering academic questions, and not the personal or the ones that are
being asked to evaluate their teacher. This is all computerized testing now,
gone are the days where you need the #2 pencil, you can’t skip a question
because if you do, the screen will not prompt on to the next. Your only
recourse is to opt out of all CCSS testing and many parents are doing
that. With CCSS your children’s education, behavior and beliefs will be
tracked. There will be an electronic footprint of all things your child…if
Common Core is implemented.
Kathy Dunton
Rochester, NH
