Five Governors Battling the Myths about Common Core
Business Roundtable, May 22, 2014
From McClatchy's Washington Bureau, reporting on a panel discussion held Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "Republicans who designed Common Core say public has been misled":
WASHINGTON — Five Republican former governors who supported the Common Core from its creation during the Bush administration said Wednesday that disinformation from conservatives threatened to highjack the higher standards for what students should be able to accomplish in each grade.
“I’m a believer that facts ultimately prevail among most reasonable people,” said former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who helped lead the development of the standards and continues to support them. “I think it’s incumbent on us to speak out and defeat rumors and innuendo and allegations with facts about how the Common Core began, what its purpose is and how we believe it can be positive for American society.”
Along with Perdue, other former governors who participated in the panel, sponsored as well by Business Roundtable and the Bipartisan Policy Center, were Jim Douglas of Vermont, Linda Lingle of Hawaii, Business Roundtable's John Engler of Michigan and Jock McKernan of Maine, who is now the president of the U.S.Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
To be sure, the Common Core is not above criticism. The governors acknowledged that people had legitimate suspicions about the federalization of education as a result of President Obama's decision to tie "Race to the Top" federal grants to a state's approval of the standards. “That allowed people to seize upon that and say, ‘Aha, they’re going to mandate this,'" said Engler, stressing that that was never the intent of the governors and state school superintendents who helped develop the standards. Indeed, states had already decided to adopt Common Core by the time Obama became president.
Elsewhere ...
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Lingle: If we fail to implement the Common Core another generation falls further behind internationally
McClatchy: “If we fail to implement the Common Core and go back to the drawing board again, there’s going to be another generation that falls further behind internationally,” said former Hawaii Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.
Parents are right to complain about curricula or tests they don’t like, Lingle said. “But that’s not what the Common Core is.”...
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Event: Confronting the Myths: The Truth About Common Core
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Business Roundtable and the Bipartisan Policy Center will host “Confronting the Myths: The Truth About Common Core,” a discussion with former Republican governors who played an integral role in the adoption of the Common Core State Standards in their respective states, on Wednesday, May 21st at 8:30 a.m.
Governors Douglas, Lingle, and Purdue will discuss the reasons they supported Common Core during their tenure and why they continue to advocate for high standards for students in every state. Governor Engler, President of the Business Roundtable, and Governor McKernan, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, will also join the conversation to discuss how the Common Core State Standards will affect our nation’s ability to compete in a global economy.