In Florida, the parents of a 3rd grader are taking the very courageous step to sue their state Department of Education. Why? Because in Florida, if you opt your child out of the Florida State Assessment, the student will be retained and have to stay in 3rd grade. The parents not only find this unfair, but also unconstitutional. To move forward, they need a $17,000 retainer fee for their attorney. To date, they have raised an astonishing $12,200 in just 18 days. But they still have a little bit further to go. If you are able, please help them at their Go Fund Me account. Cases like this are how laws change.
If my state (Delaware) did this, you better believe I would be first in line to sue them! What our states are trying to do in the name of education is anything but. They sold out our students to corporations and testing companies. And they wonder why parents revolt!
The Season Of Myths 
Very familiar with Florida’s restrictive school policies as our grandchildren attend elementary, middle and high school in that state. It was astonishing when our high schooler stayed a summer with us a couple of years ago and was asked by a neighbor’s child (who was a middle schooler in Delaware), if she lived near the Atlantic ocean, like we do. Our grand said, she lived next to the Pacific ocean. It would be funny if it was a joke, but it wasn’t.
Do we think they’re getting a good education in Florida, sadly, no. We have tried to compensate for their lack of knowledge by exposing them to outside activities and environments but there’s no substitute for basic education that’s suppose to be taught in our schools.
If you like the way public schools have been managed for the past 8 years and want it to continue, vote the democratic ticket.
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Uhm, Ginny, a Republican by the name of Jeb Bush has done just as much damage to Florida education as Democrat Jack Markell has done in Delaware. You need to understand that corporate education reform is bi-partisan greed, pure and simple.
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Kevin, you are correct, Jeb Bush did implement education reform in the name of Common Core, like so many Governor’s. We can go into detail about who was “for” Common Core and who has changed their position and is now “against” it but until we vote someone into office that recognizes there’s a problem and wants to try to change it, things will continue to drift along and nothing will be changed. I know of only 1 candidate running for the presidency that has identified Common Core as a problem (I will resist the urge to mention his name).
BTW, I know you know the history of Common Core, but thought I’d remind you the backdrop to Common Core was a 1996 education summit, during which governors (James Hunt (NC) and Tommy Thompson (WI) and CEOs such as John Pepper (Proctor and Gamble) and Louis Gerstner (IBM) formed a nonprofit organization called Achieve, Inc. When two trade organizations — the National Governor’s Association and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) — took up the project of national education standards, they entrusted Achieve, Inc., led by Michael Cohen, former Assistant Secretary of Education during the Bill Clinton (Democrat) administration, to coordinate the effort.
The makeup of this first meeting illustrated the fundamental concern that many education activists had: not whether the Common Core was promoted by Republicans or Democrats, but rather that it has been led by business and political elites who want to circumvent the democratic process to impose their educational vision on the country.
And who wrote the standards? There were 24 members of the Standards Development Work Group, mostly composed of representatives from testing companies such as ACT and College Board as well as textbook publishers such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill. But the lead writers of the English Language Arts (ELA) and math standards were, respectively, David Coleman and Jason Zimba.
Coleman and Zimba have minimal K-12 classroom teaching experience. Nor have any of the other members of the 24-person work group ever taught in elementary school or instructed children with disabilities or English language learners. In Schneider’s words, they are like cookbook writers who have never prepared a meal, and it is no surprise that parents and researchers across the country are protesting the results.
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