Stopping Common Core in Nevada

By: PRLog

March 30, 2015 at 00:15 AM EDT

Nevada Assemblyman, Brent Jones, Introduces Bill to Stop Common Core
PRLog - March 30, 2015 - CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Nevada joins the majority of states saying no to Common Core. To date, 11 States: AK, TX, Ok, LA, NE, MO, MN, IN, NC, SC, and VA have all rejected Common Core. Another 33 States have pending legislation to remove all or parts of Common Core.

Originally states signed on to accept the Common Core Standards for promised education dollars. In Nevada, Governor Jim Gibbons applied for “Race to the Top” dollars in 2009. Request for funds were taken as a commitment to implement Common Core. That commitment was agreed to long before the final standards were published. Then, on May 20, 2009, Dr. Keith Rheault, Superintendent of Public Instruction, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the NGA (National Governors Association) and CCSSO (The Council of Chief State School Officers).

In 2013 the current Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dale Erquiaga, issued two directives, one reconfirming Nevada’s commitment to Common Core, another to rule that students can NOT opt out of the massively intrusive testing requirements. On April 6, 2014, in a Las Vegas Sun article, Erquiaga stated “he has yet to hear a substantive argument against the standards from Common Core critics…”

It is unclear where Dale Erquiaga is getting his information, but it certainly is the opposite of what most states are now saying and doing now that the standards of Common Core are available to inspect. Opposition information is endless and readily available on line and continues to grow as more and more educators and parents learn about Common Core. It is hard to imagine that Mr. Erquiaga has no knowledge of any “substantive argument against the standards of Common Core” Why does Nevada have to be last in everything when it comes to education?

Thanks to freshman Assemblyman Brent Jones, who introduced AB303, a Bill to stop Common Core and the SBAC testing, Nevada legislators will hear new information about Common Core. “We have so much information now, information Governor Gibbons did not have when he agreed to accept the Common Core Standards. So of course, as legislators, we have a responsibility to examine these standards, especially since so many states are now saying no and passing legislation against implementation. We must look at why 11 states have refused Common Core and another 33 states are in the process. We can learn a lot from other states, what works and what doesn’t,” said Jones.

Nevada consistently places dead last in education performance among the states, but Jones believes that Governor Sandoval is sincere about improving education and will be open to hearing testimony from experts, teachers and parents at the Education Committee Hearing scheduled for April 1st, 2015.

One of the biggest problems with the CC Standards is the “top down” control that many believe will lead to a national curriculum and national tests.

An August, 2014 PDK/Gallup poll found that: "Sizable proportions of Republicans (68 percent), Democrats (45 percent), independents (55 percent) and public school parents (60 percent) agree that local school boards should have the greatest influence in deciding what is taught in the public schools, as opposed to the federal or state governments".

According to HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association): “Three sets of laws prohibit the federal government from prescribing the content of state curricula and assessments, yet the Department of Education has done more than any other organization to propel the Common Core and is currently funding the creation of standardized assessments that are fully aligned with the Common Core”.

Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University and an expert on the Common Core stated: “Because Common Core Standards are being imposed without trial implementation to test their effectiveness, or even see what they mean ‘on the ground’ in actual schools and school districts, they are looking more and more like a full-court press from the government and large corporations overriding the long-standing tradition of local control over public schools. What makes this even more suspect is that test companies like Pearson stand to make huge profits from their implementation. Given this, we can expect opposition to the standards to grow, not diminish in coming years.”

Another major objection is the data collection or “Data Mining” element of Common Core. "Now that the public has had a chance to 'read the rules', we discover Common Core violates the privacy of students and their families, through the gathering and sharing of personal information and worse yet, that the private information is being sent and shared with the federal government".

Assemblyman Jones says he has experts to testify in all areas of Common Core and that the Education Committee Hearing will be an eye opener and valuable learning experience for legislators. “The information will give Nevada legislators the opportunity to catch up to what other states are doing and revisit Nevada’s position on accepting Common Core,” said Jones.

Read Full Story - Stopping Common Core in Nevada | More news from this source

Press release distribution by PRLog