McCrory should veto Common Core repeal

Published June 10, 2014

Editorial by Rocky Mount Telegram, June 9, 2014.

The Common Core curriculum has barely crossed the finish line on Year Two, and already North Carolina legislators want to throw it away and replace it with something else.

What will the new curriculum be?

We don’t know yet. But it will be better, we’re told, and more suited for North Carolina.

For once, the Republican-controlled N.C. General Assembly can’t be accused of playing partisan politics with the issue. That’s because the Common Core standards have been widely embraced nationally by Republican governors such as Chris Christie in New Jersey and former Gov. Jeb Bush in Florida.

And right here at home, too. Gov. Pat McCrory has advocated for the Common Core standards.

He likes the rigorous benchmarks set by the curriculum and the fact that North Carolina students can be measured accurately against their counterparts all over the country.

More than 40 other states also have adopted the Common Core program.

McCrory reiterated his support for the curriculum as recently as last week when he criticized the N.C. House and N.C. Senate for voting to repeal Common Core. He called the legislature’s efforts “not a smart move.”

Fortunately for the students, teachers, parents and other supporters of the curriculum, McCrory is in a position to do something about the pending repeal.

Assuming that the House and Senate collaborate on Common Core repeal legislation that passes both chambers, McCrory can veto it.

As Charlotte mayor and a gubernatorial candidate, McCrory struck many of us as a common-sense moderate who had North Carolina’s best interests at heart.

It’s time for the govenor to demonstrate that pragmatism in the face of ill-conceived legislation in the General Assembly.

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/opinion/our-views/mccrory-should-veto-common-core-repeal-2501441

 

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June 10, 2014 at 9:06 am
Norm Kelly says:

Truth: 45 states, including NC, accepted the bribe from the central planners to implement Common Core.

Truth: Common Core has NO history. There is NOTHING to prove that it is worth the time & effort put into defending it the way the media is doing. There have been no students graduating from high school, having spent their school career immersed in CC, who can prove they are more ready for college or the real world than kids who had graduated prior to CC being forced upon us.

Truth: Common Core started out as standards. The concern expressed by opponents is that CC is no longer standards. As this editorial points out, CC has become curriculum. What's wrong with CC being curriculum? It does NOT allow for flexibility. Once it transforms into curriculum, it becomes the way things MUST be done. It no longer allows for differences between kids.

For instance, what about the fifth grader who's math paper had points deducted because she didn't follow the CC way of arriving at the answer. The teacher insisted that the process be followed. It mattered not that the work was shown, that the right answer was derived, that the student showed her mastery of the topic. What mattered was that the student was veering off course and MUST be brought back in line with the standard.

What part of this is right?

When the standard/curriculum introduces pornographic reading material into middle schools, parents are arrested when they protest. Government is forcing private business to do things like bake cakes for people they CHOOSE not to do business with. Now government is forcing parents to accept reading material for their kids that is inappropriate. Sounds an awful lot like indoctrination. Which is one major objection to CC. If it's not indoctrination, then why such vehement support for it and opposition to anything else.

What is the track record for CC? How do you know that another solution WON'T be better? Why are you so close-minded about an alternative? Libs always, always, always claim they are the open minded people, but every time they are given the chance to prove it, they fail miserably. If I were as close-minded as libs demonstrate themselves to be, I'd stop claiming I was open minded. Unless lib minds are so open that their brains fall out! That could explain a lot!

Show us some statistics on the positive results of CC. Show us how kids AREN'T being indoctrinated into a specific way of thinking. Show us that an alternative would be worse. Show us how kids in NC ALL learn the same way as kids in NYC or Chicago or Seattle, and that there should be no flexibility. Then when you insist that it's this way or no way at all, continue to try to take alternatives away from parents. Eventually parents will start to stand up for themselves and revolt. Eventually, you will be forced to admit there are alternatives; your way is NOT the only way. Libs complain when Christians say Jesus is THE way. But then they stand on shaky ground by saying THEIR way is the only way that will be tolerated. Again, open minded to the core! Like concrete.

June 10, 2014 at 9:27 am
Richard Bunce says:

Funny how all these newspapers who supported the Governors opponent in the election now think they know what he is thinking and what he promised to those who actually supported him.

June 10, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Richard Bunce says:

Then there is this...

"California's laws on teacher tenure, layoffs and dismissal are unconstitutional, a Los Angeles trial judge has ruled.

In a case brought on behalf of nine schoolchildren, Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu wrote in a decision released Tuesday morning that the evidence "shocks the conscience" and that "there is also no dispute that there are a significant number of grossly ineffective teachers currently active in California classrooms."

But enforcement of the much-awaiting ruling will be delayed pending an appeal by the lawsuit's defendants, the state and California's two major teachers unions."

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25935432/l-judge-strikes-down-californias-laws-teacher-tenure