Ending the Flawed Common Core Mandate
By Sen. John Thune
Parents around the country will tell you that for their children’s success, it’s important to have an effective educational system with teachers and administrators who are accountable to the local community. It’s local control, not big government mandates, that hold the key to efficiently implementing educational plans that work best for kids, because what works for students in New York City might not work well for students in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and vice versa.
For too many years, though, that had been the case: a big-government, one-size-fits-all approach to education. This wasn’t good for teachers, and it wasn’t good for students. With the sweeping education reform bill that was recently signed into law, we will thankfully reverse that trend and return control to the people who know students the best, like their parents, teachers, and local school boards.
We’ve all heard the phrase “teaching to the test,” which was born from the nearly 15-year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy that was intended to boost teacher accountability. After hearing from school districts around the country, it became clear that while accountability has a role in our school systems, it’s also important for school boards to have the flexibility to set and administer standards that meet their own local needs. Ending the NCLB policy was long overdue – after all, more than 40 states were operating under NCLB waivers, which will no longer be necessary under the new law.
Perhaps most importantly, the Every Student Succeeds Act puts an end to the U.S. Department of Education’s bureaucratic Common Core mandate that has been a hotly debated topic for South Dakota teachers and families. Gone are the days of an over-reliance on standardized testing that consumed teachers’ time and frustrated parents and students alike. The long-standing education policy received a failing grade, and I’m glad that states will now be able to determine their own academic standards and assessments without the heavy hand of the national school board that is the U.S. Department of Education getting in the way.
The education reform bill and the changes it will make have been endorsed by teachers, superintendents, school boards, state legislatures, and governors, and according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, it “strikes a balance between accountability for the taxpayers’ investment on the one hand, and state and local control on the other.” This is a win for everyone involved and will put students in a better position to succeed.
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This legislation did nothing to to end common core. It perpetuated it. Quit the deceptions.
Yoy represent the one percent, not the rest of us.
Please explain how this gets rid of Common Core.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/12/10/every-student-succeeds-act-vs-no-child-left-behind-whats-changed/77088780/
“Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law allows states to adopt Common Core but does not require it. In fact, it requires the Education Department to remain neutral: “The Secretary shall not attempt to influence, incentivize, or coerce State adoption of the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or assessments tied to such standard.”
SO, does the above mean that the next time the legislature tries to get rid of Common Core that the state education department cannot lobby to keep Common Core? I’m waiting to see that one.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/12/rhetoric-bipartisan-every-student-succeeds-act-cant-mask-federal-control-education/
“With the demise of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the signing into law of the ESSA, some Americans could be swayed into believing the U.S. Department of Education had practically been dismantled. This is hardly the case… writes Jane Robbins, senior fellow at American Principles Project, at The Pulse 2016. ‘It lays out particular requirements for state standards and uses code language throughout that gives the federal government the tools to pressure the states to stick with Common Core rather than risking their federal money by adopting something better. It maintains the federally dictated testing regimen and requires states to implement assessments that are expensive, that have been proven to be ineffective and unworkable, and that operate not by assessing students’ academic knowledge but rather by measuring their attitudes and dispositions,” she continues.
“Contrary to what Republican leaders such as Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are asserting – that the law provides for a more “limited” role for the federal government in education – ESSA cements into law a new federal preschool program, so that what used to be the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), of which the ESSA is now the latest version, now extends federal control to preschool as well.
The new law also provides for President Obama’s special project known as the “21st Century Community Learning Centers.” Robbins explains: ‘[This] means that schools will be expanded to replace family and church as the center of every child’s life, offering myriad “services” including mental-health programs. Few things should alarm parents more than the prospect of the government’s assessing their child’s mental health and proceeding to fix any problem the government claims to find. But this is what the Republican Congress has given.”
Rounds brought in common core and Daugaard and his lackeys will never vote it out because they don’t want to admit failure.
Common Core or (CCSS) was developed and implemented by 49 states, not the federal government. It was adopted by about 45 states so far. Obama had nothing to do with it, neither did the US Department of Education or Secretary. When Thune states in a op-ed piece that a “Government Bureaucrat” and the federal government are behind Common Core, he is either misinformed or is lying on purpose! The Republicans are still pulling the old Karl Rove tactic that if you say something enough times it becomes true!!! CCSS was adopted by the SD Legislature, and endorsed by the governor, with a strong majority of Republicans.
http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/
http://www.corestandards.org/
Thune;
“Perhaps most importantly, the Every Student Succeeds Act puts an end to the U.S. Department of Education’s bureaucratic Common Core mandate that has been a hotly debated topic for South Dakota teachers and families.”
http://dakotawarcollege.com/us-senator-john-thunes-weekly-column-ending-the-flawed-common-core-mandate/
Some people do not want to know the facts, they just listen to politicians and Faux News. Here are the facts;
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/jul/25/joe-leibham/federal-government-required-states-adopt-common-co/