2015/01/06 – Common Core opponents packed the state Capitol on the first day of the 2015 Legislative session to show strength in numbers against the federal education standards they claim harms children.

Carrying homemade signs and slick banners, the protestors gathered for a brief pep talk before dispersing throughout the statehouse to talk to legislators. They’ll end their effort with a rally at 2:30 p.m. on the Capitol’s south steps.

“Common core is the vehicle by which they will fundamentally change America if we do not fight it,” the Rev. CL Bryant told a standing-room only crowd of more than 100 people who responded with a standing ovation.

The Louisiana-born Baptist minister and outspoken Common Core opponent traveled to Jackson to motivate the protestors, who themselves hailed from all corners of the state. They want Common Core repealed.

“What’s wrong with the Three R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic?” said Rita Buse of Tupelo. “A lot has been accomplished with just your basic reading and math skills. Give the teachers back their authority and put more money into the classroom instead of administrative offices.”

Mississippi adopted Common Core State Standards in 2010, along with 45 other states. The standards set the educational goals all public school children must attain but doesn’t determine the curriculum by which those standards are taught. Local school districts do that.

The state Department of Education said on its website that it adopted the standards “because they provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn so that teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.”

But state Sen. Michael Watson disagreed and cited the state Board of Education’s own minutes showing it adopted the standards “based on finding of imminent peril to public welfare in the loss of substantial federal funds from the Race to the Top Grant … .”

Watson also said Mississippi adopted the standards sight unseen and that, since then, numerous psychologists and cognitive experts have found they actually harm children.

Dozens of educators and child development researchers signed a joint statement in 2010 citing “grave concerns” about the appropriateness of Common Core for younger students, and other experts have expressed similar sentiments since then.

Todd Macko of Brandon, who has school-aged nieces and nephews, said no proof exists that Common Core prepares children any better for college and career than the previous state standards.

His wife, Barbara Mackso, Common Core isn’t about children, it’s about money – federal money to the state and state money to testing companies.

But many Mississippi educators do support the standards, which schools have been slowing implementing for the past few years. They say students have risen to the new expectations and that they’ll eventually produce a more educated population.

The Mississippi Association of Educators also supports Common Core, saying it has only two problems: The state hasn’t fully funded its implementation and that lawmakers see students only as a test scores, not children.

“The solution,” MAE said in a press release, “is to return the art of teaching to the professionals: educators.”

Source: The Clarion Ledger