Nine members of the U.S. Senate have sent a letter to Congress requesting that they defund the government’s role in the controversial Common Core Standards and Curriculum (CCSC), aka “Obama Core”, which uses the bait of federal money to lure states into adopting what amounts to the establishment of a national educational system.
According to William A. Estrada, Esq., director of Federal Relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), eight senators opted to sign onto a letter by Senator Chuck Grassley (IA) urging the Congress to act on stripping funds from the CCSC. The senators include Mike Lee (UT), Tom Coburn (OK), Jim Inhofe (OK), Deb Fischer (NE), Rand Paul (KY), Pat Roberts (KS), Jeff Sessions (AL), and Ted Cruz (TX).
“These senators understand that parents and teachers, not federal education bureaucrats, should decide how and what children learn,” Estrada writes. “They understand that the Common Core has become a one-size-fits-all approach to education and that the federal government has no business using tax dollars to entice the states to adopt the Common Core.”
Opposition to the CCSA is also mounting in the House where Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO) and 33 other representatives sent a letter to colleagues opposing Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s support of the program, as well as the national databases which are threatening the privacy of children’s data.
The CCSA was launched by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2009, but these organizations are actually comprised of private groups financed by liberal foundations such as Gates and various corporations.
“Their plan is to induce all elementary and secondary schools to accept a comprehensive national education system that will enforce a national curriculum,” reports Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum.
“National standards will be locked in by the tests students must take called assessments, which in turn are tied to teacher evaluation. The standards instruct the teachers what to teach so their pupils can pass the tests and teachers can get positive evaluations.”
The problem with this approach is that it bypasses parents and state and local school boards, and will fundamentally transform education by dictating what every child will learn and not learn, Schlafly reports.
“No Child Left Behind was a step in this direction, but it allowed the states to set their own standards. Common Core, on the other hand, requires all states to adopt the same federally endorsed standards.”
The government will use a “carrot-and-stick methodology” to get states to sign on.
“The carrot is the offer of federal money, such as Race to the Top money granted if, and only if, the states first adopt the Common Core standards,” Schlafly reports. “The stick is the threat to withhold federal funds from states that don’t obey.”
Schlafly believes “Obama Core” is unconstitutional because the U.S. constitution gives the federal government no power over education.
“The essence of Obama Core is control of curriculum because that is where minds are molded and stimulated to higher levels of learning, and character is formed,” she writes.
Opposition to the program is growing and the HSLDA is grateful for the response of lawmakers to increasing concerns about the CCSA and plans to provide more information about its dangers in the coming days and weeks.
In the meantime, they are encouraging people to contact their governor and state legislators to share concerns about the curriculum.
Estrada concludes: “Homeschoolers know that a one-size-fits-all approach to education is bad for children and dangerous to our fundamental right to direct the education and upbringing of our children.”
Click here for a map of states that are currently using the CCSA.
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