NEA Leader says C. C. Implementation “Botched”—Proponent Mike Huckabee Advises: “Rebrand it, Refocus it, but Don’t retreat.”
With national supporters and proponents of Common Core retreating or urging more deception, Sheri Few, Republican candidate for South Carolina Superintendent of Education is digging in her heels and “taking no prisoners.”
In Greenville recently, Few said “the Palmetto State needs an education superintendent committed to stopping Common Core and charged the current Zais-Childs administration with giving ‘lip service” to those opposing the nationalized Common Core school curriculum scheme.”
Recently, Few joined incumbent Superintendent Mick Zais and his former Deputy, Charmeka Childs, also a Superintendent candidate, for a discussion on Common Core and other education issues before the Greenville County Republican Women’s Club.
Few disputed the Zais and Childs claim that they are opposed to Common Core. “Charmeka Childs, while working for Dr. Zais, attempted to push through the national Common Core Science Standards, yet both she and Dr. Zais came before the Republican Women to claim they oppose Common Core, even while they are implementing it and giving lip service to opponents.”
Few added: “As superintendent, I am committed to pulling Common Core out by the roots.” Few noted that Zais as Superintendent has statutory authority to review curriculum and that she intends to use the powers of the office aggressively to stop Common Core.
“I would do everything within my power to repeal Common Core and then convene a task force to review every South Carolina textbook for liberal bias that we all know is there,” Few concluded.
Eagle Forum reports that the education union National Education Association NEA leadership was promoting Common Core during their annual convention last year in Atlanta, while members expressed dissatisfaction of Common Core and asked President Obama to fire Secretary Arne Duncan.
In a February 19, 2014, letter to union members, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel admits that Common Core implementation has been “botched,”
Eagle Forum reports that “seven of ten teachers believe the implementation of the standards is going poorly in the schools – and – two-thirds of all teachers report that they have not even been asked how to implement these new standards in their classrooms.”
Teachers and parents knew several years ago that what is now being called Common Core was “seriously flawed,” reports Eagle Forum. They labeled critics as “extremists, malcontents, and nut-jobs.”
Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan “found it fascinating that Common Core opponents are white suburban moms who – all of a sudden – their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.”
As implementation has begun in 46 states, the union president is especially concerned that Common Core ties teacher performance to student scores.
The NEA president is beginning to sound like thousands of parents when he says, “There’s too much at stake for our children and our country to risk getting it wrong.
Carol Burns, New York State 2013 Teacher of the Year, reports that “as the result of Common Core, we see kids who do not want to go to school anymore… I fear that they are creating a generation of young students who are learning to hate mathematics.”
Meanwhile, Baptist preacher turned politician, turned TV star, seeking the Presidency, Mike Huckabee sees the solution to the objections to Common Core as doing a better job of deception and salesmanship.
Mike Huckabee, a Common Core proponent, told a group of education proponents of Common Core recently that the label “Common Core” is toxic. He suggested that states “Rebrand it, refocus it, but don’t retreat.”
Eagle Forum, the organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, describes the origin of Common Core in clear, understandable language in view of the Huckabee comments:
“Parents, teachers, principals, citizens, or legislators never attended public hearings before Common Core was chosen by states because there were none. Common Core is a top-down scheme hatched by two Washington, D.C. lobbying organizations, promoted by wealthy philanthropists and utopian dreamers, and pushed by the federal government. It is doubtful that the public will be fooled by name changes.”