Common Core Pushback

Four bills just cleared the Arizona Senate Education Committee by a 6-3 party-line vote.

1. SB 1310: AZ must withdraw from the state & federal Partnership for Assessment of Blah Blah Blah;
2. SB 1388: State Board must not adopt Common Core;
3. SB 1395: Districts and charters can opt out of Common Core;
4. SB 1396: Districts and charters must adopt their own standards (in place of Common Core).

The bills are pushed by right-wing, anti-federal government politicians. It's hardly a coalition, but they are joined by some school administrators who are too shy to speak up and teachers who are not heard even if they do speak up. The push for Common Core in the state is from business leaders ("We can't find enough qualified workers") and middle-class parents who have drunk the Common Core Kool-Aid ("World-class standards and world-class tests will guarantee that your child will get into a world-class university and eventually have a high-paying career."). Of course, Common Core for AZ is being pushed by the testing companies (McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, Pearson) who would love to sell the state online testing systems at $30 a kid X 1,000,000 kids = a $30,000,000 contract. Opposition to the Common Core is strong among the charter schools who view it as another means of exposing their sub-par performance and a big bite taken out of their profit margin.