COMMON CORE: The NC General Assembly Holds
Its First Public Meeting on Common Core (Dec. 17, 2013)
Diane Rufino,
December 22, 2013
On
Tuesday, December 17th, the NC General Assembly Common Core Study Committee
held its first public hearing to address Common Core. I attended, as well as
other activists and Tea Party leaders all across the state. Opponents of
Common Core who attended were advised to dress in red to make a visual
statement to the NC General Assembly of the growing movement against North Carolina
Those who spoke in favor of Common Core were
Dr. June Atkinson, head of the NC Board of Education, and Michael Brickman, the
national policy director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where he promotes
education reform. Prior to his position with the Fordham Institute, Brickman
was recruited by Governor Scott Walker to lead his education-reform efforts in Wisconsin .
Brickman has publicly characterized Common
Core opponents as a “small but vocal minority of conservatives” coupled with a
bit of “the far left.” In front of the Study Committee and the audience
in red, he stated that opponents are caught up in conspiracy theories and
unfounded and baseless talking points. Dr. Atkinson spent a good part of
her presentation echoing the same sentiment.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, arguably
Common Core’s greatest champion, also has accused its opponents of employing
conspiracy theories.
Michael Brickman gave a presentation that
was essentially broken down in three parts: (i) The poor Report Card that
Fordham gave North Carolina for its state Education Standards; (ii) Why
Common Core addresses NC’s education shortcomings (and poor standards); and
(iii) Why opposition to Common Core is based on Myths and not facts.
Read
the entire article!
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