Free Republic

August 16, 2014 College Board Erases the Founding Fathers. By Patrick Jakeway The classic novel Brave New World describes a future in which people have lost all of their liberty and in which they have become drugged robots obedient to a central authority. It also details how this control was first established. First, the rulers had to erase all history and all the people’s memory of a time before their bondage. Today, the history of George Washington's leadership has been erased in the new Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History test/curriculum, taking effect in the fall of 2014. The College Board,...

North Carolina officials say there has been a huge increase over the past two years in the number of Tar Heel families who have pulled their kids out of public schools and begun educating them at home. The number of homeschools has jumped 27 percent since the 2011-12 school year, NewsObserver.com reports.As of last year, 98,172 North Carolinian children were homeschooled; that’s 2,400 students more than the number who attended a private school.While the sputtering economy is the reason families are choosing homeschooling over private schooling, the nationalized learning experiment (Common Core) is the main reason families are leaving the...

The highly acclaimed school standards called Common Core are becoming so unpopular that they may soon be politically untouchable. The critics are piling on from Glenn Beck to the Wall Street Journal, with senior academics and activist parents in-between. The latest is a detailed criticism of the mathematics standards by a prize-winning math professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Marina Ratner. It is refreshing that her criticisms are very specific and include examples of assignments that parents can see are ridiculous. Professor Ratner became alerted to the stupidity of Common Core by looking at the homework assigned...

A new, unprecedented bill passed by California’s State Senate on Thursday will encourage public schools to teach students about the historical significance surrounding Barack Obama’s status as the first African-American president of the United States of America. Assembly Bill 1921 passed with a 30-1 vote, according to the Associated Press. It was introduced by Assemblyman Dan Holden (D-Pasadena). Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) says the bill would require the Instructional Quality Commission (which facilitates much of California’s Common Core framework) to consider teaching students about Obama’s election within the context of past voter discrimination, the AP notes. Sen. Joel Anderson...

Following repeated requests from parents, the state of New York released the text of half the questions used in its new Common Core-aligned standardized tests. The test questions, used in tests for grades 3 through 8, include one question that encouraged students to cite evidence in favor of global warming. included several short written pieces that students had to read and respond to in order to demonstrate English mastery. One such piece was an article originally published on NASA’s website, “The Summer of 2012 –Too Hot To Handle?” The article discusses the high temperatures and drought during the summer of 2012...

Michael Mulgrew defends Common Core: ‘You sick people need to deal with us and the children that we teach’The wild remarks came during last month’s American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles. ‘You sick people need to deal with us and the children we teach. Thank you very much!’ Mulgrew said. Teachers union honcho Michael Mulgrew unleashed a venomous screed directed at anyone who would dare threaten his beloved Common Core agenda. “If someone takes something from me, I’m going to grab it right back out of their cold, twisted, sick hands and say it is mine! You do...

Too much information. That's what parents are saying about the "birds and bees" lessons in a new health textbook for high school freshmen. Parents say the book mentions vibrators and bondage and is inappropriate for 13- and 14-year-olds. More than a hundred parents showed up at the district offices to check the book for themselves. The book at the center of the controversy is “Your Health Today.” In less than three weeks 2, 400 ninth graders will be using the text book in their health classes. But already more than 1,200 people have signed a petition to pull the book,...

New history curriculum standards proposed for top high school students leave out such American icons as Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King, Jr., paint colonists as bigots and gloss over the Greatest Generation's fight to save the world from Nazi Germany, according to conservative education activists who want the framework delayed — and perhaps scrapped altogether. “And you’re not going to find Thomas Jefferson and the House of Burgesses and the cradle of democracy either,” said Larry Krieger, who retired in 2005 after more than three decades in the classroom. “And finally, you’re not going to find Benjamin Franklin and...

The political fight over Common Core academic standards reached an absurd level last week when Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a lawsuit arguing that an agreement he signed four years ago "threatens Louisiana's sovereignty as a state." In a way, he is suing himself. The governor signed the memorandum of understanding in 2010 for Louisiana to take part in Common Core and the development of a multi-state test to measure student achievement. His administration even pushed in 2012 for legislation to strengthen the state's commitment to the new standards. The effort, which originated with the National Governors Association, wasn't controversial then....

By Matthew Burns Raleigh, N.C. — Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday signed legislation designed to replace the controversial Common Core academic standards in North Carolina public schools with standards drawn up by a new state commission. The standards were adopted by the state several years ago. But their implementation in the 2012-13 school year angered some parents, who said they were inappropriate in several areas. For the past year, those critics have been pushing lawmakers to repeal the standards. McCrory has supported Common Core in the past. Just last month, he said the push to repeal the standards "is not...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) called on state lawmakers Thursday to pass a bill in January that would repeal the Common Core standards and replace them with “standards set by people in Wisconsin.” According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Walker released a statement Thursday afternoon, just hours after two Republican state senators, Leah Vukmir and Paul Farrow, issued a joint press statement calling for a delay in the use of the Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBAC) that are aligned with the Common Core standards. Earlier in the year, Walker helped draft a bill that would create a state board to replace...

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) has signed legislation that provides for a task force to write new education standards that will eventually replace the Common Core in his state. Nixon’s office announced his approval of the measure Monday, the last possible day the governor could take action on bills passed earlier this year, local news KMBC.com reports.The Republican-led Missouri legislature, which has battled the standards since their adoption in 2010, approved HB 1490 23-6 in the state Senate and 135-10 in the state House. Originally, the bill was intended to ban the Common Core standards entirely.Increasing numbers of states are repealing...

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Legislature had the authority to repeal Common Core education standards for English and math in the state's public schools. ... Conservative groups maintained that the standards represented federal intrusion into Oklahoma's public education system, and Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law legislation repealing the standards last month.

How many times do I have to write about the problems discovered in Common Core teaching? This time it deals with Pearson Education, one of the leading companies that helps develop and train Common Core teaching. According to their website: “As the leading education services company, Pearson is serious about evolving how the world learns. We apply our deep education experience and research, invest in innovative technologies, and promote collaboration throughout the education ecosystem. Real change is our commitment and its results are delivered through connecting capabilities to create actionable, scalable solutions that improve access, affordability, and achievement.” [Emphasis mine]...

Reviled by staunch conservatives, the common education standards designed to improve schools and student competitiveness are being modified by some Republican governors, who are pushing back against what they call the federal government’s intrusion into the classroom. The Common Core standards were not on the formal agenda during a three-day meeting of the National Governors Association that ended Sunday, relegated to hallway discussions and closed-door meetings among governors and their staffs. The standards and even the words, “Common Core,” have “become, in a sense, radioactive,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican whose state voluntarily adopted the standards in 2010....

by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsOne student got tired of being dumbed-down by Common Core's convoluted "standards" to do basic arithmetic. "Standards" like how to add two numbers, which the student was told to do like THIS: WHAT? It's enough to make you pull your hair out. So when he was given his next basic arithmetic assignment, to find the difference between 180 and 158 (180-158), this 5th grade student just did it his own way -- the right way -- and dissed Common Core with single, awesome word:

Wow. Here’s a link to the Gates-subsidized NBCNews.com article. There is no indication that it’s an advertisement or advertorial. It appears to be a bona fide news story written by a bona fide reporter (Nona Willis Aronowitz). Here it is featured along with NBC News’ other articles on its education page:

In a major surprise, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the country’s second-largest teachers union, opened its biannual convention Friday by announcing a step back from its support for Common Core education standards. The group, gathering in Los Angeles, announced that it will now provide monetary grants from its Innovation Fund for teachers who want to critique the standards or even write entirely new ones themselves. The AFT’s executive council is also introducing a resolution, to be voted on at the convention, which would declare that the standards had noble intentions but have fallen short due to outside meddling and...

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - BESE submitted a compromise to Governor Jindal regarding next year’s standardized testing. The hope is to reach an agreement in an ongoing dispute regarding Common Core testing. Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Chas Roemer, Vice President Jim Garvey and Secretary-Treasurer Holly Boffy conducted a call for members of the media to discuss the resolution. [Link to PDF - the compromise is on page 3] https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9eTEUJnljUqcjB1YWxHT0Ztc3c/edit?pli=1 And another link to the letter from another site (in case that one doesn't work: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.apeleducators.org/resource/resmgr/News_Files/Letter_to_Governor_from_BESE.pdf

Americans are waking up to how bad Common Core really is for education, but its nightmare does not go away quickly. Liberal education bureaucrats ("educrats") are now trying to enforce Common Core through the courts, with one lawsuit already filed in Oklahoma and another likely in Louisiana. In both states the governors tried to get rid of Common Core, but parents are shocked that it may return by court order as unelected educrats claim they have more power than the state legislature and governor combined. The Oklahoma legislature approved a law to repeal Common Core, and the governor signed...