Make no mistake..."Common Core" is a profit-making venture for Jeb Bush et al.

[Atman]

(Listening to the discussion on Chuckie Toad's show)

It is very obvious what is going on here. Jeb and Neil are heavily invested in the for-profit education industry. "Common Core" addresses the PROFIT, not the education. It they can establish a NATIONAL standard, they can then sell a product NATIONWIDE. No multiple versions of schoolbooks and curricula. They'll have a fifty-state market in which to peddle their wares. Don't be fooled. "Common Core" is about dollars for Jeb and Neil Bush and their investors. It has nothing to do with improving education, it is about making a mass market for the snake oil they are selling.

[Faux pas]

1. I'm SHOCKED...

not.

[lpbk2713]

2. A Bush wouldn't waste his time on something where there was no personal gain involved.

The first consideration for them on any undertaking is "what's in it for me?" .

[WinkyDink]

7. Try Googling "IGNITE!"

Like here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2312360

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-10-15/no-bush-left-behind

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/washington/07neil.html?_r=0

[earthside]

3. But isn't Ed. Sec. Arne Duncan for Common Core?

And our President?

So what's up?

[Atman]

4. Never liked Arne anyway.

Not sure about POTUS. My gut tells me he isn't all that interested. Doesn't make it any better...they're all in bed together. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Arne had a vested interest ($$$$) in "Common Core ®"

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. Perhaps the better question is

Why are Duncan and Obama siding with Bush and Huckabee?

[earthside]

15. We all know the truth ...

... even if we (DU community) don't want to admit it:

Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Bloomberg, -- the 'liberal' billionaires -- like charter/private schools and want to see the day when computers teach our children and 'teachers' are little more than low-paid computer room monitors.

And all the testing results from students and teachers are just data crunched by Microsoft et al.

Parents? Just pay your taxes and shut-up; leave the important decisions about 'education' to the expert administrators.

Standardized testing.
Charter schools.
Teacher 'evaluation'.
Common Core.

Still on-track to completely corporatize our 'public' education system.

[polichick]

31. Yep - corporatists doing what they do. Wake up people!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. The "conservative rural community" in which I live hates it.

I can't say as I blame them --

[Atman]

8. I don't have a clue WTF that means.

What is so wrong with just doing math? Oh, right...can't sell a billion new books to schools systems all over the country. Got it.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. "I don't have a clue WTF that means."

From the body of your post I'm assuming the "that" in your thread title is referring to the math problem in the image I posted.

What is so wrong with just doing math? Oh, right...can't sell a billion new books to schools systems all over the country. Got it.

Even that can't be the reason because the purchasing of new text books is a constant.

I'm not prone to conspiracy theories. I do NOT think CC is an attempt to deliberately dumb-down America's future electorate. However, the tenacity with which the advocates of CC cling to their efforts in the face of near-universal condemnation and the obvious absurdity of the curriculum makes it hard for me to assume innocent intent.

[Atman]

14. I also do not think CC is an attempt to dumb down America's future electorate.

Of course, I never said any such thing. I'm speaking purely from a profit motive. Once you have a national standard in place, you can get a government contract to supply the materials which adhere to the national standard, cutting out local school boards and state's rights and teachers unions. There is a HUGE profit potential in Common Core. Nothing to do with education, I honestly don't think they care. But they can't just re-package the stuff schools are already teaching or else there wouldn't be a market. So they have to create something "new" and market it as such. No one will make a bazillion dollars re-selling old Dick And Jane books.

[dotymed]

24. My H.S.Son

was doing poorly in school. He got in trouble using his cell phone again at school and was sent to "alternative school" for 30 days.
Their curriculum is all computer based.
After 2 weeks, he is "earning" all "A.s."
He did not learn shit.
dummin down amerika?

A, B or c.....

[Maineman]

16. I studied beyond a master's degree in math and taugh college calculus, but I cannot make sense of

this process. There are better uses for the number line.

When processes like this are taught, they fail and lead to a massive change in textbooks and materials, or a push to privatize education, or both.

[Atman]

22. This example is very telling...

They'll be able to hire tutors. No normal human being would do math this way. Thus, they'll be able to get rid of the chaff, the "slow learners." If their kids don't get it (which they won't, because it is absurd), they'll just hire people to teach them the tricks, or send them to private tutors. Meanwhile, public school kids subjected to this hokum will fail, and thereby prove the bullshit theories about education. It really is brilliant, I can't deny it. Evil, but brilliant. But will we once again just sit by and let them do this. Maybe next they'll require you must be armed in school in order to take the test.

[mia]

9. Republicans are eating their own over Common Core.

More than five years after U.S. governors began a bipartisan effort to set new standards in American schools, the Common Core initiative has morphed into a political tempest fueling division among Republicans.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce leads establishment voices — such as possible presidential contender Jeb Bush — who hail the standards as a way to improve student performance and, over the long term, competitiveness of American workers.

Many archconservatives — tea party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz among them — decry the system as a top-down takeover of local schools. The standards were developed and are being implemented by states, though Common Core opponents argue that President Barack Obama's administration has encouraged adoption of the standards by various parameters it set for states applying to get lucrative federal education grants.

Tea party-aligned officials and candidates want to delay the standards or abandon them altogether in at least a dozen of the 45 states that adopted some part of the guidelines. Indiana lawmakers approved a repeal that now awaits a decision from Gov. Mike Pence.

"Common Core is like Obamacare: They passed it before they knew what was in it," said William Evers, a Hoover Institute research fellow and lead author of a California Republican Party resolution denouncing Common Core....

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/common-core-spawns-widespread-political-fights-23030962

[greatlaurel]

10. You are absolutely correct.

The Common Core agenda is to make as much money as possible for the corporate interests that have pushed it. Microsoft will make billions by supplying software for testing and replacing teachers with computers, as well as Pearson. Look at the corporations that funded it.

Furthermore, the Common Core was established without following proper protocol for establishing such standards. The ANSI standards were completely ignored during the writing of Common Core. Here is a link to an interesting article about this: http://dianeravitch.net/2014/03/24/the-fatal-flaw-of-the-common-core-standards/

Arne Duncan is a useful idiot for Bill Gates. Just think about this clearly. Microsoft is in big trouble. Many are switching to Linux and other open access software. Brazil has switched to Linux. Gates knows that Apple saved itself from bankruptcy when it started getting Apple computers into schools. Bill cannot come up with something original and useful, so the only way to save his corporation and his wealth is to chain children to his crap software. It is what happens when you can buy politicians, thanks to Citizens United.

Common Core is an incredibly clever form of forcing children into working for the profits of corporate welfare. The corporations have found a brilliant way to subvert the ban on child labor laws in the US. Our children are being forced through Common Core and other draconian mandatory testing laws to work every day at school for the benefit of corporations and the vile Bushes are right there to scam as much money as they can.

[Atman]

12. +1000 (x2) over .321 + 20/16

I can't even make up fake math correctly!

[Enthusiast]

19. "Arne Duncan is a useful idiot for Bill Gates." Plus one!

[greatlaurel]

29. Thanks!

[DeSwiss]

13. The only discussion I will enter into that involves a Bush.......

...has to include prison as its main subject.

- Anything else is a tremendous waste of time.

[greatlaurel]

30. Great point!

[Android3.14]

17. You know not

A national curriculum is one major factor keeping us from matching the public ed systems of the best industrialized countries.
Labeling something as evil simply because someone makes a buck off of it is short-sighted at best. Other examples of public services that are, and have been for years, for-profit, include ambulance services, hopsitals, busing, taxis, car rentals, farming, textbook publishing and education.
This hand-wringing because it is a "national curriculum" is exactly the tune the conservatives are screaming about (Trilateralists anyone?)

[Atman]

20. What a crock of shit.

Is your DU name just the designator of the device from which you mass-post?

[Android3.14]

25. Nope

First name is Andrew, I was born on March 14 and I'm a sci-fi buff. My username reflects that. And just to save time, I accept your apology.
Any who, I taught math and science in public grades 8th-16 (including mathematics courses for elementary ed teachers at the local university) for ten years before leaving education in disgust.
I've studied the problems with our public ed system for years, before, during and after my time in the trenches.
Common Core is just the next faddish thing in a long line of education fads that probably will have no effect on our results.
Long-time education veterans know that this will move along in 2-8 years and the teachers will be dealing with the next fad.
That being said, there are a few things that we should be doing in order to produce intelligent well-educated people in this country.
They include the following:
A national curriculum - like Japan, Finland and North Korea.
Well-paid teachers - We should pay teachers at least five times the poverty level.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/average-teacher-salary-around-world_n_4037534.html
A focus on mastery rather than grades.
Sending students home who disrupt another student's right to an education, but always allowing the disruptive students back into the classroom once they agree to behave.
Less emphasis on technology, (in fact, we should eliminate even calculators completely until a student has mastered algebra) and more emphasis on basic skills and problem solving.
I've always said that the way to a progressive citizenry is a conservative (i.e. traditional) approach to public education. That's why the '60s were such a time of turmoil, because public education had, using traditional approaches, produced a large population of progressive thinkers.
If we do these things, the public education system might even produce citizens who can defend and/or change their opinions rather than assume a person is a 'bot simply because that person recognizes that the citizen is incorrect.
Enjoy yourself. My lunch is over, and I have to work now.

[Atman]

27. I agree with almost everything you posted.

I agree that CC is "faddish." I lived through "New Math."

I agree that a national curriculum would be a good thing -- BUT -- I do not agree that it would be a good thing if developed by a private, for-profit corporation ie Jeb/Neil Bush.

I agree that teachers are grossly underpaid.

I agree with mastery, but not so much about grades. I've heard the arguments, and I'm not sure that saying "Your child needs help" is much different than a "C." We're generally smart people. I've never seen a report card which didn't explain the meaning of the letter grades.

I agree, partially, that technology is too prevalent. But I'm not sure why I agree at all. When we were kids you had no choice but to learn the long, hard way of doing math. It is certainly good to know WHY you are reaching a conclusion instead of machine showing you the answers...but again, why? If Armageddon comes tomorrow and why can't use calculators, the last thing I'd be worried about is algebra. I'd be worried about how to skin a deer.

Anyway, I believe we agree more than we disagree. Peace, my friend!

[greatlaurel]

28. Real national standards written by real teachers, as Finland does it, would be great.

Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2014, 02:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Unfortunately, the phony standards called "Common Core" are not real education standards that can be modified or changed as research shows the need by real educators. It is far more insidious than just a marketing scam/education fad, though. These were written by and for a very small group of corporate toadies to enrich themselves without taking into account what will work in the classroom. By getting Arne Duncan and the federal government to push it and tying federal dollars to Common Core, it makes it even more than a usual fad, because it will be set in stone far longer than most educational fads have been in the past.

Your statement about public services that have been privatized disproves what you are trying to argue. Privatization leads to poor out comes for what ever service that is sold to the private sector for profit.

However, you are correct in that there are many simple solutions for education issues. We agree on a lot. Your statement on calculators is spot on.

Common core is a massive theft of public education dollars to enrich a very few individuals. It does not give us functional national education standards. It is something that used to only happen in third world banana republics.

[Enthusiast]

18. It is SNAKE OIL!

Profit is all it is about. It has nothing to do with improving education.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

35. And yet there it is, intertwining its tentacles further, tightening its grip. BFEE strike again. nt

[Enthusiast]

37. With the help of complicit Democrats.

[Doctor_J]

23. If you look at every catastrophe in the US over the last 100 years, the Bush family is neck deep

WWII, 11/22/63, the stock market crashes, the S&L looting, 9/11. The BFEE is unstoppable. Pelosi had a chance to put some of them in jail starting in 2007, but decided not to.

[dotymed]

26. Kneel bush

after the savings and loan scandal covered up by poppy, he moved to Florida and became a board member of a company
designing software for school curriculums.... they ALL need to be in prison, exercising their "beautiful minds." fucking yuck

[greatlaurel]

32. Here is a link to a really thought provoking article about Common Core.

Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2014, 03:53 PM - Edit history (1)

I hope you all take a couple minutes to read it. The reply to the article is interesting, too.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2014/03/the_common_core_are_they_even_.html

[Enthusiast]

33. Hillary Clinton was praising Jeb Bush today for the job he has done on education.

No Hillary, no way! Say it after me. No Hillary, no way!

We don't need no stinkin' Third Way "Democratic" candidates!

[greatlaurel]

38. Link?

[Enthusiast]

39. Right here.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/24/jeb-bush-hillary-clinton-together-again-to-talk-education/

And there are more.

[greatlaurel]

41. Thanks for the link.

That site did not have much of her speech, but it made me curious since it did not say much other than her "praise" of Bush. Politico had a few more quotes:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/hillary-clinton-education-jeb-bush-event-104950.html

"But Clinton, speaking without notes and not appearing to look at a teleprompter, talked for more than 30 minutes about the need to increase access to quality education, including through community colleges or vocational schools. Her remarks struck themes similar to her comments during the Clinton Global Initiative University in Arizona over the weekend.

“We’re living in what I like to call the participation age,” Clinton said, employing a phrase she’s used in recent months as she’s given speeches at college campuses and elsewhere.

She used the example of Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani education activist who was shot by a Taliban gunman on her way to school. She survived the attack, and Clinton pointed to her story as a case that highlighted the need to allow women and girls to fully participate in society.

“When they couldn’t shut up Malala because she (tried to) speak for herself, they tried to kill her,” Clinton said.

She pointed to how she ended up at Yale Law School, retelling a story about how officials at Harvard said they didn’t think they needed “any more women. Well, I was speechless, but it made my decision…easier.”

These days, Clinton added: “Somebody might think it, but they wouldn’t be so politically incorrect as to say it.”

But she also noted that when to comes to education, it’s important to “make sure the commitment is deep and broad and not just narrow. Not just for people at the top.” "

Does not sound like she is pushing the corporate education agenda, but I would really like to read the whole speech. If anybody has a link to it, I would appreciate it.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

34. Because there's a FORTUNE to be made off public education...

[Atman]

36. You took 30 seconds to C&P. Do you actually have an opinion anyone would give a shit about?

Sorry...my smilies have a limiter on them.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

42. I can cut and paste much faster than that...

And this thread really doesn't deserve better.

[Contrary1]

40. It should be breaking news that the Repubs in Indiana

finally did something right.