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Chester County Press

The downside to Common Core

06/12/2013 07:29PM ● By Acl

Letter to the Editor:

The Avon Grove School District and all Pennsylvania schools are implementing “federally mandated” Common Core. As a parent, grandparent, teacher, taxpayer, or a public servant, do you truly understand the goal of Common Core and its impact on your children and on their future? What is the underlying motive of this federal mandate?

Common Core is federal control of education, and this has violated the 10th Amendment. Under Common Core, states and parents have no control of what or how their children are learning. States have relinquished their rights in determining educational standards, which means they gave up your rights as a parent also.

In the past, if local standards did not work, the local community could change them with input from parents.  Parents and local school districts no longer have influence on what and how their children are being taught. Do you know that the standards are actually “less” than those required in the past by many states?  Many states will have to reduce the math standards to comply with Common Core.  Our students need to be taught to think outside the box, not fill in the circles. Common Core is about the government “pigeon-holing” students at a young age based on test results.  Children will be “channeled” into curriculums (career paths) based on where the “government” feels the needs are, not the parents or children.

How much do you know about the increased data collection on your children (and on you) which is taking place at the federal level with Common Core?  Do you know how that information will be used?   Common Core means loss of privacy – your privacy and the privacy of your children.

Don’t just look on the surface.  Look deeper into these nationalized education standards; you’ll see it’s more about coercing. Common Core is not what it seems. It is not simply a move to standardize (nationalize) education requirements. It is another indication of the increasing effort of the federal government to control your lives, not make them better.  Ask yourself:  who really has control of my children?

If you are truly interested in the future of your children, you’ll do your own reading and research and dig deeper.  How can any Washington, D.C.-controlled bureaucrat know what Chester County children need to succeed? Common Core aims to take American education lower and lower.

Your state legislators [John Lawrence, Chris Ross, Dominic Pileggi] can stop Common Core in Pennsylvania.

And Common Core does not come without a price tag--your taxpayer dollars are being used. Even though Pennsylvania got $1.8 billion from the federal government, school districts don’t have the money, so be ready for your taxes to climb swiftly.  As a taxpayer, and out of concern for the children of America, I do not want my money going to support Common Core standards in any school district.

Jane Brown                                                                                                                                                           Franklin Township