6 Reasons to Oppose Common CoreLori Rardon Common Core is a nationalized education program. Some people may say this is a good thing. After all, we should want commonstandards across the country for our kids education. Really? Do we really want top down standards forced onto our schools? Does that approach yield good results? Lets take a look at the federal governments last attempt to get involved in our schools No Child Left Behind. This federal law required states to prove their schools were making adequate yearly progress or they would be fined. So, all of the schools really kicked it up a notch and our kids shined right? Wrong! Instead, some states made their standardized tests easier for students to pass so they could avoid the fines. Instead of lifting the poor performing schools up to achieve a higher bar, federal involvement resulted in schools lowering their standards for kids. And how has federal involvement in our schools been working out for us? Our students now rank 26th in math and 21st in reading compared with other countries. Common Core eliminates choice in education. I find it interesting that people who claim to be so pro-choice on one issue are so anti-choice on everything else, including choice in education. How is choice going to be limited? If your child does not attend a Common Core school, they will have a more difficult time getting into college. The ACT and SAT college entrance exams are being rewritten to reflect Common Core standards and processes. So, if your child is home-schooled or attends a charter school that has not adopted Common Core, your child will likely do very poorly on these exams which will impact their ability to attend college. This is a way to move parents away from non-Common Core schools limiting choice. Common core standards are not rigorous. To the contrary, these standards will make our kids less prepared for higher education. Take math, for example. Under Common Core, algebra will not be taught until ninth grade which means that kids will not be exposed to pre-calculus until college. Without a good math basis, they will have difficulty obtaining college degrees in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). Moreover, these standards fall well below other nations, so our kids will be at a significant disadvantage in a world economy. Dr. James Milgram (Stanford University emeritus professor who served on the official Common Core validation committee) reported: What about English? Under Common Core, only 30% of high school seniors reading will be literary based. What will the other 70% include? Government documents, of course. You know, fun and informative things like regulations from government agencies. How much imagination do you think your child will be using with a government regulation in front of his/her face? As a patent attorney, I have read many government documents, and let me tell you if there is anything that takes the joy out of reading, government documents are it! Your child will be taught to be a worker not a thinker a follower not a leader. Besides the less rigorous learning standards, under Common Core your child will be exposed to government rules/regulations teaching them that government is the answer to all. Pearson Education creates Common Core-aligned material. It recently apologized for distributing a grammar worksheet to fifth-graders which included the following political statements. Was this a simple mistake or a way to indoctrinate kids? Common Core eliminates parents ability to help their children with schoolwork. It drives a wedge between parent and child because the parent no longer understands the process by which the child is learning. I have seen this first hand as I watched a friend struggle to help her daughter with 3rd grade math because the process for solving the math problems was so convoluted by Common Core language and techniques. In a subtle way, the child learns that they must look to the school for direction rather than their parents. So, whether you are a parent or not, it is crucial that you educate yourself on Common Core. This nationalized program is well on its way in our schools. Lori Rardon is a Constitutional attorney who writes for the TenthAmendmentCenter.com where this article first appeared. 