Editor,
2014 started with great optimism for thousands of concerned parents, grandparents and many educators from around the state. The governor spoke of his support for “uncommonly high standards written by Hoosiers for Hoosiers;” The General Assembly was and is moving towards dropping the highly controversial and swiftly adopted Common Core Standards in 2010; and the State Board of Education and Department of Education announced they would work cooperatively together to produce a new set of standards that would be fair and exceed the requirements mandated in HEA 1427.
Now, in early March and after three days of public testimony on the new draft standards the only area of agreement between the advocates of the 2010 Common Core Standards and the opponents of Common Core is that the draft standards are “remarkably similar” to Common Core! Even Deputy Superintendent Danielle Shockey is quoted as saying, “The average parent is unlikely to notice a difference between the new state standards and the national Common Core standards.”
This cut and paste result is a huge betrayal to the hundreds of citizens and the many legislators that have worked for years to not only retain our state’s educational sovereignty but to produce educational standards that are “uncommonly” high and truly prepare children for their careers or college.
The State Board of Education is the first board in the country that adopted Common Core in 2010 to still have a chance to develop a better set of standards but time is running out. The education industry has historically fallen prey to jumping on the bandwagon of unproven, untested ideas such as Common Core.
None of us would expose our children to medications that haven’t gone through years of trials and FDA approvals. Why are we willing to continue to use our children as educational lab rats when it comes to ideas such as Common Core and now potentially the draft standards?
In the coming month the SBOE, governor, DOE and General Assembly are going to have to decide which side they plan to serve… the educational industry or the concerned citizens and the children of this state. We trust they will make the right decision but we will also verify.
David Read, 46033