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www.mybaycity.com September 22, 2013
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TIME OUT: Common Core Education Standards May Go Unfunded

September 22, 2013       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Common Core.

Simple listing of goals for education of students?

Or, a nefarious scheme for the feds to take over all K-12 education?

And, open the door for student data to be released to the public.

Common Core opposition went viral on YouTube last week when Robert Small, a Maryland father, was removed from a Baltimore school board meeting for speaking against the standards.

A security officer pushed Small and then escorted him into the hall, handcuffed him and had him sit on the curb in front of the school. He was taken to the Towson precinct and detained. Small was charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, which carries a fine of $2,500 and up to 10 years in prison, and disturbing a school operation, which carries a fine of $2,500 and up to six months.

Michigan is one of 45 states that have adopted the Common Core, a set of goals for American students promoted by the National Association of Governors and the Council of Chief State School Officials.

Common Core is supported by Gov. Rick Snyder, the state chamber of commerce and the state's largest teachers' union.

However, opines the Holland Sentinel, "our state is one of several in danger of backsliding on its commitment in the face of political pressure."

Lansing insiders said the legislature may not vote on funding the Common Core implementation until Sept. 30.

"While the standards were unanimously adopted by the state Board of Education in 2010, the Common Core has drawn strong resistance from some on the right who see them as a top-down educational system that usurps local control, mandates a national curriculum and serves as a back door maneuver for a federal takeover of public schools in America."

The Michigan legislature has until Oct. 1 to decide whether to fund the start of Common Core State Academic Standards on math and English this school year.

The state budget bans spending on implementation of the standards,and the budget goes into effect Oct. 1.

Teacher training, professional development and materials for the Common Core program won't be funded in the upcoming fiscal year through Sept. 30, 2014.

State Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Saginaw Township, former education policy adviser to ex-Gov. John Engler, chaired a subcommittee that studied the Common Core standards. Four hearings were held by the group.

Last word from Rep. Kelly was that committee members perhaps were prepared to recommend adoption of the Common Core but were wary of a testing program it involves.

If Michigan halts Common Core implementation, a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education easing some of the strict rules of the federal No Child Left Behind law could be affected. That waiver runs out this year and Michigan would have to reapply early next year.

In Wisconsin, the amendment was passed one week after the legislature hosted a public hearing on Common Core, and many opponents expressed concerns about the quality of Common Core standards and the potential misuse of personal student data that would be collected under the program.

"This is simply taking a pause," State Rep. Dean Knudson (R-Hudson), the sponsor of the amendment, told Madison.com. "We're not rolling back anything we've done."

Data collection on every teacher and every student is an integral part of Common Core. The plan is to have a permanent digital record on every student from kindergarten through grade 12. The collection categories include academic records, disciplinary incidents, special education accommodations, health records, fingerprints, financial aid information (including tax returns), religion, and several hundred more categories. These records would be given to the U.S. Department of Education.

Since the 2011 FERPA revision, student information can be released to third parties for non-academic purposes. And a nonprofit organization has been paid to store student and teacher information on a data cloud, which may be vulnerable to hackers.

According to the Pioneer Institute, there are "three federal laws that prohibit federal departments or agencies from directing, supervising or controlling elementary and secondary school curricula, programs of instruction and instructional materials."

Laura Krentz, a Muskegon area citizen who attended all the state hearings, states: "Michigan shouldn't pay the high financial price to aspire to mediocre standards, lose our autonomy in education, and lose the privacy that students and teachers deserve for an illegal overreach by the federal government."



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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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