Is it Time to Scrap Common Core in Idaho?

Common Core are dirty words in the minds of some people.  The program was launched roughly a decade ago.  The Governor of a state I lived in at the time was a co-chair of the committee behind the overhaul of American education.

A schoolteacher in my family explained I was wrong as a critic of Common Core.  Then she and her colleagues were charged with implementing the program.  Quite suddenly she stopped telling me I was mistaken.  The words “teaching to the test” also followed.

In Idaho we’re told what we have is different.  It’s called Idacore (please check my spelling), which is some Orwellian sleight-of-hand.  It’s like the clerk telling you the purple shirt is mauve.  It’s still purple.

Hearings underway in Boise show support for Common Core.  Or at least it’s what mainstream media claims is happening.  I keep in mind newspapers are staffed and managed mostly by liberals who’ve never met a big government program they don’t like.

Many of the people offering testimony are the professional witnesses trotted out to back the bureaucrats who make money shilling for the program.  Some quotes I’ve read make claims about student improvement.  Really?  I just finished reading a series at Idaho Education News and the writers gave me the impression state classrooms are filled with illiterates.  Test scores and graduation rates aren’t much budging in students favor.  Here’s an idea, let’s return to parenting and take Junior’s smart phone away!

State Representative Dorothy Moon wants Common Core dismantled.  She’s also a retired teacher.  You can hear her thoughts by clicking below on the YouTube video: