Tavares, FL Wed., March 5, 2014
News the "mainstream" print and TV media probably won't tell you
Will Florida Gov. Rick Scott listen to the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF), which just approved a resolution sent to him & the State leaders to request they CEASE implementation of Common Core, which the State, in a deceptive move, renamed to "Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards"?
Recently, after hearings in Orlando, the state Education Department "proposed" about 100 minor changes to the Common Core standards, leaving Common Core Opponents unhappy and some voicing lack of support for Gov. Rick Scott. This may be one reason why the Florida Republicans issued their resolution to get Scott to reverse his position on Common Core and stop its implementation.
The cover letter and resolution are attached here (in one document):
Download 2014-03-04 RPOF Common Core Resolution
This action follows the filing last week of House & Senate Florida bills to stop Common Core. A co-sponsor is local Lake County Senator Alan Hays:
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/florida-senator-files-anti-common-core-bill/2167507
Lake County was represented in this RPOF resolution process by Lake County RPOF State Committeeman Alan Winslow, who is listed on the resolution as a member of the RPOF Legislative Affairs Committee that processed the resolution through the RPOF Committee system. Winslow is past Chair of the Lake County Republican Executive Committee.
In summary, the RPOF resolution says:
- "Common Core, now known as Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards, prohibits Republican unification and will likely have a negative impact on the outcome of Florida elections". That means that many Republicans oppose Common Core, and have voiced discontent with Florida political leaders, thus it could reduce votes in the upcoming elections for Florida officials. By rejecting Common Core, Florida officials would receive more votes.
- "The Republican Party of Florida Legislative Affairs Committee recommend and urge Legislative leadership to cease implementation of "common core" standards... and withdraw all obligations defined by previous agreements regarding "common core" initiatives by and with the Federal government." Reading between the lines, this means they want Florida to reject agreements they signed to implement Common Core in order to get Federal Funds from the Stimulus Act several years ago. I have no idea what the penalties are.
- "In the absence of legislative action, the... Committee recommend and urge Governor Rick Scott to exercise his Constitutional authority and notify the proper State and Federal agencies of the State of Florida's desire to immediately end its obligation to any standards or agreements with the Federal Government and to immediately cease implmentation of "common core" standard (by any name) in the State of Florida.
- "The ... Legislative Affairs Committee genuinely believes this position is in the best interest of the children of the State of Florida."
This action by the RPOF follows a wave of dissent among many parents, teachers and conservatives who oppose Common Core. Previously, the national Republican Party (Republican National Committes) as well as many Florida Republican County parties and other State organizations have passed resolutions against Common Core.
What's Next? Wait and see if the resolutions and the filed bills help motivate Scott to finally reverse his stand and cease implementing Common Core in Florida.
Vance Jochim, FiscalRangers.com
References:
- The Republican National Committee (RNC) resolution opposing Common Core is here:
Download 2013-04 RNC Opposing Common Core Resolution
- The Lake County Republican Executive Committee resolution opposing Common Core is here :
Download LCREC-0016-13 Common Core Resolution signed
- The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition website and Facebook pages are here:
http://www.flstopcccoalition.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FLStopCCCoalition
- FiscalRangers has videotaped numerous meetings in Lake County about Common Core. They are on our "FiscalRangersFlorida" YouTube channel here and below are links to several of the presentations:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFz_7OLkz53Xz0U57VCXWYoG35jz4h39E
- If you want more Common Core videos, here is Karen Bracken's Common Core YouTube Playlist with over 170 videos on Common Core: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEgO7XA2J0WgKJ4_LdSAkenZUEXteJrXU If you search on "Common Core" on YouTube, you will get 468,000 videos, clearly indicating huge opposition to Common Core.
- Common Core Bonus: Lake County resident Larry Brooks recently went to the FL State Education Commission meeting on February 18th in Orlando where they finalized a list of 100 "minor" changes to Florida Common Core standards. Here is his 4 page report in a letter he sent to FL District 31 Rep. Bryan Nelson describing the meeting and why he opposes Common Core. He even cites some examples of how socialist bias and revisionist history is frequently injected into lesson plans (even for math) and textbooks. Brooks wrote this DRAFT before the RPOF issued their resolution, and lists five requests for action by Rep. Nelson:
Download 2014-03-04 DRAFTCommonCoreLetter_BNelson_4 March 2014_picturesadded_DRAFT
Brooks also provided the link to the videos of the Feb. 18th meeting on the Florida Channel:
http://thefloridachannel.org/videos/21814-state-board-education-meeting/
Here is another short list of resources from www.floridaeagleforum.org
JEB BUSH HAS A 'COMMON CORE' PROBLEM
The problem for Bush is that just about everything he says about the standards is untrue. Common Core is a federally promoted, not state-led, initiative introduced in the Obama administration's 2009 stimulus bill through a competitive grant program called Race to the Top (RTTT). Common Core is a set of unproven and untested uniform standards and aligned curricula and testing that allows for a greater role of government in education, higher levels of social engineering, student data collection, and teacher evaluations based on student performance on assessments.
The National Governors Association (NGA), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and nonprofit progressive education think tank Achieve, Inc. were mainly responsible for the initiative, and both the NGA and the CCSSO are the publishers of the Common Core State Standards. The standards themselves were written by individuals who never even taught math or English. None of these private groups are accountable to parents, students, or teachers.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/04/Jeb-Bush-Has-A-Common-Core-Problem
Why Moms Are Protesting Common Core
English literature selections are not read for the joy of reading and learning, but so they can be analyzed and critiqued by students using left-wing norms. That's called "new criticism literary analysis," another unproved theory of education.
Common Core has created a tremendous moneymaking opportunity for private companies that advertise their products as "aligned" with Common Core, and "aligned" has become the magic word to promote sales. California has allocated $1.25 billion in the current school year for adopting Common Core.
New York State Set to Vote to Delay Common Core Rules
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