FOLLOW THE MONEY: Common Core, the States and GOP Backers

“This notion that the children belong to the state, that their education must be provided for by the state … is inimical at every step to liberty.” – J. Gresham Machen

As the battle against Common Core continues in Michigan this week during the Ominbus budget bill talks, Common Core pusher former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (and a potential presidential candidate for 2016,) is coming to Michigan formerly a speaker at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s policy conference formerly http://www.detroitchamber.com/mpc/on Mackinac Island.

Republican Jeb Bush is behind the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a   501(c)(3) non-profit non-partisan (meaning they will take money from anyone)  organization, group which pushes Common Core and is, funded by Gates, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which has heavily promoted and subsidized Common Core — formerly http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/345002/common-core-next-bandwagon-john-griffing

The third federal entanglement was the Education Department’s grants to two consortia of states to develop new Common Core-aligned assessments, which came with various requirements and strings set by Secretary Duncan’s team.

Money down the toiletAnd speaking  of money…
Keep in mind, reasonable estimates of the cost of fully bringing on Common Core hit as high as $16 billion   . ….. if it will help kids, people simply have no “right” to object to  the Common Core based on costs! But its for the kids!!

Perhaps more  importantly, adoption of the Common Core has not been voluntary.

From  the outset of the Obama administration, officials talked about a need for national standards, and under the mammoth 2009 “stimulus” (the repercussions of the Stimulus is still being felt) they got a lever by which to push that:the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program. To fully compete for Race to the Top money states had to adopt standards common to  multiple states, and only one set of standards fully met the definition: the Common Core.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Education  earmarked $350 million for the development of tests to accompany the standards, and chose the two entities that would develop them: the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Finally, when issuing waivers to  release states from the most onerous NCLB requirements, the administration required that states either have adopted multi-state standards — defacto, the Common Core — or have their biggest system of four-year public colleges declare the state’s own standards “college and career  ready.”

The states continue to prostitute themselves for Federal money at the own peril and that of their citizens.  I was hoping that PPACA would wake some of them up but apparently  the addiction is worst than crack…they (the politicians on BOTH sides of the aisle) see no way out and apparently don’t want one.

 

 

 

Grassroots in Michigan

http://grassrootsmichigan.com