Common Core Update: Daily Commercial publishes Common Core article from AP that distorts the truth

Tavares, FL April 18, 2015

This is information the main stream media like the Daily Commercial or
Orlando Sentinel will NOT tell you, parents, grandparents or educators.
Also read the Facebook groups I have listed at the bottom of the report.
The public is going to alternative "news" media like these due to the biased
news media articles like the one described below.

Saturday, April 18, the Daily Commercial published a front page story
"Movement to opt out of Common Core accelerates" by Christina A. Cassidy.

However, they did not publish it on their website, so HERE is a longer
version published in the online Honolulu Star Observer.
By not publishing it,
the Daily Commercial also avoids comments submitted by readers.

It was somewhat balanced in describing the growing movement by parents and
students to "opt-out" of school tests. Some states are seeing up to 70% of
students refusing to take required tests. It does bring up the valid point
that many parents and students are joining the "opt-out" movement and
refusing to take the Common Core based tests in many states.

However, a trend I see is that the AP almost always includes canned liberal
distortions of facts buried in the text, such as these:

"Some Republicans and Tea Party activists focus on the Common Core standards
themselves, calling them a federal intrusion by President Barack Obama, even
though they were developed by the National Governors Association and each
state's education leaders in the wake of President George W. Bush's No Child
Left Behind program."

- Notice the immediate attempt to blame only Republicans and Tea Party
activists (I am both), but they ignore now many unions and Democrat parents
are also rising up against the excessive testing, but the AP reporter does
not acknowledge it.
- The reporter says the standards "were developed by the National
Governors Assocation and each state's education leaders ..." That is a
bald faced lie used by liberals to try and avoid that the Federal government
bribed most states to accept the Common Core standards in order to get
Federal education funds. Recent in depth articles describe now non-educator
David Coleman got startup funds from Bill Gates, then let the NGA and the
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) both copyright them to
prevent dilution. No state Ed or Governor's Office departments participated
in the design. At least the writer avoided the overused label "state led"
which was the original distorted "fact". The standards were written by a
committee of about 140 people, with only one math expert, one english
language arts expert and NO early childhood development experts or teachers.
The Common Core movement was led by a non-educator, David Coleman. The NGA
& CCSSO did nothing except act as a shell to hold the copyright of the
Common Core standards , thus
states who committed to use it could not revise it due to copyrights. So
the AP reporter is using standard marketing buzzwords that have been exposed
for inaccuracy for several years.

"The Obama administration has encouraged states to adopt Common Core
standards through the federal grant program known as Race to the Top, and
most have, but each state is free to develop its own tests."

- The states were "encouraged" by being bribed to accept Common Core
in order to get needed No Child Left Behind funds. There was very little
flexibility in a down economy so most states took the bribe to get the
money. The claim they were "encouraged" is a bald faced lie without
explaining that funds were held as bribes to get Common Core acceptanbe.
- States were NOT "free to develop its own tests" because the tests
were required to follow the copyrighted Common Core standards. The
proponents would allow the states to add 15% to curriculums (such as
re-instating cursive handwriting requirements dropped by Common Core) but
those changes would not be in the exams. Each state was required to use
only one of two testing providers funded by Bill Gates and Federal money, so
the providers, not the states, created the exams to "align" with Common
Core. Later, however, Florida changed to a third provider, AIR, which may
be worse than the original PARCC they were going to use. That is the
provider that mucked up the recent first testing procedures.

Common Core (or the closely aligned Florida Sunshine Standards) is very bad
for kids. You can read my factsheet here
, or search on Common Core on Facebook and
find many local, state and national Facebook groups opposing Common Core.
But now angry moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, unions and students are
rebelling, and it needs to be gone.

The Daily Commercial AND the Orlando Sentinel both periodically publish
liberal biased inaccurate AP articles, and they should stop it. They need
to stop reiterating biased, incorrect liberal statements that are not true.
They need to start sourcing from anti-Common Core sources that provide
facts, not just vague meaning buzzwords.

Vance Jochim
FiscalRangers.com
The best daily information now on opposing Common Core is in state or county
focused Facebook pages (or groups) and websites created in 2014 by parents
now encountering Common Core issues. This factsheet focuses on big picture
issues, but the Facebook groups listed below post more frequently. Search
on Facebook or Google and find one for your State and perhaps local county.
Subscribe to them. BE sure to subscribe to them and enable "notifications"
so you get all their posts. Then read this factsheet for background.
Examples of local and statewide Facebook pages or groups include:
- "Lake County (FL) Against Common Core"
- (1100+ members)
- "Choose to Refuse Common Core"
( 8500 members)

- "Stop Common Core in Alabama
" ( 9000 members)
- "The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition
" - (2500 members)
- "Stop Common Core in Florida

" - (4700 members)