It’s unsettling to think Kansas legislators want to design the curriculum for our public schools. COMMON CORE is positioned as the Bogey Man in the debate, but in reality it is nothing more than a benchmark for what students should learn by a certain grade.
Since 1966, that’s been the responsibility of the State Board of Education, as provided by the Kansas Constitution.
But House Bill 2922 works to take that privilege away from the state board and remodel public schools to more closely resemble factories.
First, proponents use scare tactics to hint Kansas schools are a dangerous place for your children and grandchildren, starting with school libraries as denizens of sin.
Frank Clark, a retired teacher in private religious schools in Manhattan, was drafted to testify such thought-provoking works as “Dreaming in Cuba,” a finalist for the National Book Award, and “The Bluest Eye,” by Pulitzer prize winner Toni Morrison, “can only be described as legalized pornography.”
And Alice of Wonderland is a prostitute.
Clark said the Common Core curriculum is abolishing classics such as “Ivanhoe” in favor of “new authors.”
May we remind Mr. Clark that Morrison not only was awarded a Pulitzer, but also the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the American Book Award and a Nobel Prize in literature.
If Clark deems this “new” kind of literature as dangerous, he should stay clear of the Bible.
Second, public schools are being cast as “educationally bankrupt.”
Clark laments cursive writing is taking a back seat to keyboard instruction and that “grammar, spelling and logic,” are getting short shrift.
He didn’t back up the claims with proof of any sort, nor did legislators challenge him to do so.
Which is where the real crime lay.
Common Core has nothing to do with saying what books are stocked in a school library or what classes are taught.
The CC standards have been adopted by 44 states and are universally viewed as being helpful in judging whether a student is being equipped for the 21st Century.
The real evil behind the proposed legislation is what it will do to public education in Kansas.
The goal is to starve public schools with punitive spending measures and by creating a voucher system that uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools that cater only to the wealthy, able-bodied, and college-bound.
Those who toe the ultra-conservative line also favor eliminating tenure for teachers and teachers’ unions. Also in the crosshairs are the adopted standards for science, history and social studies, health and sex education.
In essence, HB 2922 turns education into a privilege, not a right.
And this is Kansas?
— Susan Lynn
Common Core just a front for attacks on public school system
