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Rep. Steve Stockman, Texas There’s something rotten in America, and it’s called Common Core. This new approach to educating children in our country is a top-down, rotten-to-the-core set of educational standards that is being imposed on states through federal bribery. How has this been achieved? States were promised funds from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top Program, part of the $800 billion stimulus package, if they agreed to adopt Common Core educational standards. In addition, they would receive a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act, all before these educational standards were released. Enticed by the idea...

Big name Republicans giving their full-throated support to the Obama Administration’s Common Core education reforms don’t dwell too much on what they are. They don’t look good in close-up. Common Core State Standards “Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in math were developed to address the criticism that national math curriculums were ‘a mile wide and an inch deep,’” Sarah Perry writes in a Family Research Council (FRC) issue brief. “The drafters sought to develop more focus and coherence through the standards, with the belief that those students who can explain mathematical rules would have a better chance at succeeding in...

GREENWELL SPRINGS, La. — Rebekah and Kevin Nelams moved to their modest brick home in this suburb of Baton Rouge seven years ago because it has one of the top-performing public school districts in the state. But starting this fall, Ms. Nelams plans to home-school the couple’s four elementary-age children. The main reason: the methods that are being used for teaching math under the Common Core, a set of academic standards adopted by more than 40 states. Ms. Nelams said she did not recognize the approaches her children, ages 7 to 10, were being asked to use on math work...

Everyone believes in "standards" don't they? So what could possibly be wrong with "Common Core" (the US education system's "Common Core State Standards Initiative")? After all, is it not "a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English... created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live"?* Not according to Dr. Duke Pesta, professor of English at The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, who joins us for an extended and detailed interview on the genesis, content and ideology of Common Core...

"American politics has often been an arena for angry minds." So begins "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," a classic work that the historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in 1964, another time of deep division and mutual suspicion. In that essay, he traced the roots of an American style that goes back at least to the late 19th century, when a plethora of mass movements kept finding new candidates for the source of all our troubles. It might be International Bankers one year and the gold standard the next as older scapegoats -- Catholics, immigrants, Masons -- gave way to...

I know a lot of people on this site are against public schools, and rightly so. I just wanted to share a Charter School that does deserve credit for what they are doing. Basis Charter Schools, http://basisschools.org/ is leading a revolution in the education industry. One of my children will be attending there this year for 5th grade. He just tested into Algebra 1, for 5th grade!! There is no way that a typical public school would allow him to do that. My other child just finished 6th grade. She took Algebra 1, Latin, separate courses in Chemistry, Biology, and...

A new law passed in the state of Tennessee has led Gov. Bill Haslam (R) and the state’s chief education officials to quietly quit the PARCC Common Core test consortium, leaving the multi-state test group with only 15 members. As Education Week reports, while H.B. 1549, which was signed into law last month, does not actually direct Tennessee to quit PARCC, it does require the state to use its current assessment, the TCAP, in the coming 2014-2015 school year and to issue a request for proposals for a new test to be administered in 2015-2016. In a letter to Laura...

Oklahoma recently took action to protect the state's children from the federal education bureaucracy by withdrawing from Common Core. Common Core is the latest attempt to bribe states, with money taken from the American people, into adopting a curriculum developed by federal bureaucrats and education "experts." In exchange for federal funds, states must change their curriculum by, for example, replacing traditional mathematics with "reform math." Reform math turns real mathematics on its head by focusing on "abstract thinking" instead of traditional concepts like addition and subtraction. Schools must also replace classic works of literature with "informational" texts, such as...

When Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill repealing Common Core national standards from her state’s schools, it was perhaps the most ironic moment in the fight over the initiative. Fallin is chairwoman of the National Governors Association, one of the private groups that hold the copyright of Common Core. (Yes, this marks the first time in history a private group has owned school standards.) While Fallin wasn’t governor at the time the standards were created and adopted, she nonetheless rejected her own organization’s initiative. In the same week, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill to repeal Common...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal may have got the ball rolling with Republican governors. According to The Clarion Ledger, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant is expressing dissatisfaction with the Common Core State Standards in his state. Watch their interview with Governor Bryant below. ... Full Article:http://www.fightthecore.com/mississippi-gov-phil-bryant-hints-at-common-core-repeal-failed-program/

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday night accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of waging wars against religious liberty and education and said that a rebellion is brewing in the U.S. with people ready for “a hostile takeover” of the nation’s capital. […] The governor said there was a “silent war” on religious liberty being fought in the U.S.—a country that he said was built on that liberty. “I am tired of the left. They say they’re for tolerance; they say they respect diversity. The reality is this: They respect everybody unless you happen to disagree with them,” he...

Despite strong support from the likes of national figures such as Jeb Bush, the rejection by the states of the federal overreach into education known as the Common Core standards continues to gain momentum. Most recently, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana vetoed a bill that would have aligned Louisiana’s public school system with “Obamacore.” The governor went on to withdraw the state more fully from the Common Core using executive orders, ensuring that control of educational standards would remain in state and local hands–at least for now, pending possible legal action from Obamacore supporters. Louisiana joins Oklahoma, Indiana, South Carolina,...

I am a lifelong Mississippian, and I was a Cochran supporter for years and had planned to vote for him again this time. However, I had a chance to meet Chris McDaniel at an event in DeSoto County. I grilled him and asked several questions about what he could do for us in Washington? For me, it is not all about the money. I believe in States supporting themselves. Federal funds should only be given to States in the event of an emergency. I think that was what our Founding Fathers thought too. I chose to vote for Chris McDaniel...

MADISON, Mississippi — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant came out in ardent opposition to Common Core education standards on Thursday, a signal of the immense grassroots pressure in the state, as State Sen. Chris McDaniel and incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) battle to win the GOP primary runoff on Tuesday. “I think Common Core is a failed program, and the United States is beginning to realize that,” Bryant said, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. "Governors all across America are realizing states can do it better.” In late 2013, Bryant issued an executive order that called for state-level, not national, educational standards,...

Why are classrooms silent right before summer break arrives instead of buzzing with uplifting and educated conversation? The answer can usually be found taped to the closed classroom door: “Do not disturb. Test in progress.” standarized test For years, all across the nation, standardized tests have been administered to children and teenagers with hopes to measure and improve education. The endless variations of these tests and the myriad of acronyms invented to describe their purposes often leave students feeling uncertain as to why they are being tested, especially when in some cases, they won’t even see their scores. Tests can...

If the implementation of Common Core in the schools of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is not enough to make you think twice about sending your kids to Catholic school there, Archbishop Listecki's response letter to concerned parents might be. A growing number of Catholic educators and parents have been expressing concerns about the implementation of Common Core in Catholic schools, with some dioceses rejecting its use. This mirrors a generalized concern about common core throughout the country, but with added emphasis and concern about Catholic identity. Catholics in Milwaukee started a petition and sent a letter with their concerns to...

Despite strong opposition from College presidents, the Barack Obama administration is moving forward with a college rating system based upon a philosophy of education that bears a striking resemblance to the Common Core. According to a White House fact sheet and a Department of Education FAQs page, colleges would receive a rating based upon: costs, graduation rates, how much money graduates make, and how many graduates go on to get advanced degrees. Pitched as a way to slow the rising costs of higher education, Obama wants to tie those ratings to federal aid. Students who attend colleges with higher scores...

In a presser now underway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has announced that Louisiana is withdrawing from Common Core. Jindal was one of the first governors to sign onto Common Core but has since soured on the concept. Hopefully, more governors will follow Jindal and withdraw. Common Core, whatever its alleged virtues, is focused on training compliant workers not engaged citizens.

Have you ever wondered how Common Core went from a twinkle in a liberalÂ’s eye to widespread destruction throughout AmericaÂ’s schools in only a few short years? Well, all it took was money, lots of it. In 2008 Gene Wilhoit and David Coleman were looking to bring national standards to American education, which until then had been fragmented between the states, but they knew it would cost millions. So they went to see the man whose name is synonymous with wealth, Bill Gates. Gates was known for his meddling with American education, and failing miserably at it. He had invested...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush remains a major supporter of the nationwide education standards known as Common Core despite Republican criticism. The GOP mostly favored Common Core standards when they were released four years ago, with the vast majority of states signing on to participate. Common Core establishes standards in English language arts and math for K-12 students. But when President Barack Obama tied federal election grants to states’ adopting the standards, many conservatives changed their tune, arguing it’s the states’ place – not the federal government's – to decide local education standards, according to U.S. News & World Report....