Posted on 03/27/2015 11:10:04 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
ThinkProgress has not one but two articles bashing this tweet from Sen. (and now presidential candidate) Ted Cruz:
Federal Govt has no business sticking its nose in education. We need to repeal every word of Common Core! #nhpolitics #MakeDCListen
The headlines pretty much sum it up: Ted Cruz Makes Impassioned Plea For Repeal Of Federal Legislation That Does Not Exist and Every Claim In This Ted Cruz Statement Is Completely False. The second critiques this statement from Cruzs spokeswoman: Common Core is a federally created curriculum that the states Race to the Top grants are tied to. So if the state does not adopt the standards, it gives up the grant money. But since the federal government created this mess, there should be a way to undo it.
ThinkProgress Editor in Chief Judd Legum responds:
Literally every claim in that statement is false.
First, Common Core is not federally created. It was created by the states, on a voluntary basis. As NPR reported, the federal government played no role in creating the standards, nor did it require that states adopt them.
Second, Common Core is not a curriculum. Federal law actually prohibits the federal government to to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in an elementary school or secondary school. Common Core is a set of math and English guidelines that outline a set of skills one should have at the end of each grade. The curriculum used to obtain those skills is left to school districts, schools and teachers.
Third, Race To The Top grants were never tied to the adoption of Common Core.
Legum might want to spend some time googling up the pertinent federal and other publicly available source documents, because hes flat-out wrong.
Fed Involvement in Common Core
Federal law does indeed prohibit any federal entity from having anything to do with curriculum. Legum may not have noticed, but the Obama administration doesnt give a damn what any law says. So, in flat contradiction to the law, the Obama administration has indeed funded and coerced Common Core.
These two federal shadow agencies (PARCC and SBAC) explicitly told the Obama administration they would use tax dollars to create Common Core curriculum.
Common Core is not, as its apologists insist because theres no other way to cover their butts on this, merely curriculum benchmarks. The document governors signed to signal their consent to the creation of Common Core defines the initiative in two phases: The first is standards, the second linked assessments. And the federal government provided $360 million in tax dollars explicitly to create the pair of linked national testing systems that share test questions and student data, both with each other and the federal government. Federal employees oversaw the creation of these tests right down to the test questions. Without federal money, there would be no second half of Common Core.
Furthermore, these two federal shadow agencies (PARCC and SBAC) explicitly told the Obama administration they would use tax dollars to create Common Core curriculum. SBACs grant agreement with the feds promised it would provide teachers exemplary instructional materials linked to CCSS, model curriculum and instructional modules that are aligned with the CCSS, and teacher training. It will send teachers recommended readings, focused group discussions, use of online tools, and sharing of annotated examples of best practices and exercises. The organization budgeted $5.125 million in federal funds to contract with yet another organization to develop such instructional and curriculum resources for educators. PARCCs says it is writing model curriculum frameworks and exemplar lesson plans.
Its also utterly blind to pretend the Obama administrations Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind waivers did not push states into Common Core. State board of education minutes from Race to the Top winners show that these boards believed The verbatim adoption of these standards is required for Race to the Top approval (thats Tennessees).As the Washington Post reported, the term Common Core was written directly into Race to the Top mandates until substituted for a definition that matched only them so people wouldnt get suspicious.
Lastly, the federal government provides at least half the operating funds of the two organizations that created Common Core, which are private nonprofits with no authority to create any binding national initiatives or laws. So either way, the feds were there at the beginning, at the request of Common Cores creators, no less.
Ted Cruz Is Basically Right
Theres a lot more nitpicking to be done, but I think a fair reader sees my point. Almost everything about Legums posts is wrong, with the technical exception that Common Core itself is indeed not a full curriculum (it depends on what the definition of is is). Cruz is more accurate than Legum.
Cruz also gets the core of the issue right. The federal government has been breaking its own laws to fund curriculum essentially ever since the feds started stickyfingering education. So while the Obama administration is particularly brazen in its lawbreaking, this history of federal involvement in education essentially demonstrates its refusal to keep itself within bounds. (It also has not helped children of any income level or nationality, but thats a story for another day.) As Cruz says, The federal government has no business sticking its nose in education.
Ted Cruz: I wont be slinging mud at other candidates despite how dirty they attack me
http://therightscoop.com/ted-cruz-i-wont-be-slinging-mud-at-other-candidates-despite-how-dirty-they-attack-me/#ixzz3VbyxksQz
Congress should eliminate the Dept of Education. It has done nothing but stick its unwanted nose into education ever since it was created by Carter in 1979.
I like Ted Cruz a lot, but what’s the deal with him asking people to text to certain numbers?
Common Core may be ground zero for many a voter. Best to not only get the facts straight, but rebut the lies and half-truths the left(and the Jeb Bush crowd) will be throwing at Mr. Cruz.
Main challenge is how to make parents understand what the true purpose of Common Core is when they themselves are dumbed down and vulnerable to the main stream propaganda.
I would like to begone with not only Common Core but the IRS, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Education, the EEOC or the NLRB, among others which I have temporarily forgotten.
I would also like to hear Mr. Ted Cruz broach the subject of which EOs he would kill.
I admire that tremendously. Voters want positive leaders.
“I like Ted Cruz a lot, but whats the deal with him asking people to text to certain numbers?”
Analytics.
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
Mailing list?
Cruzship for peopleship, not bipartisanship
Ted Cruz is right again.
PING
Interesting how Common Core defenders deny CC is anything that it is accused of being ... without ever stating what CC actually _is_.
So you can get info on his campaign. I signed up months ago and have only gotten one so far - about him announcing he’s running.
Ok, thanks for the info.
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