In his response to the LWV 2014
Voter Guide questions, State School Superintendent Barge says of the Common
Core "Georgia can and is already refining the standards to better serve
the needs of our students. We will continue to do so. We must provide more
students with a better education that prepares them for life after high
school." He is tacitly admitting that they are flawed even while
supporting them. But more importantly for local control, he is affirming our
ability to make these changes.
Now, I truly believe these
standards are not all bad. Where the rubber meets the road, I believe some
parts are quite good. They have actually incorporated much of our own
home-grown Georgia Performance Standards. Even a car that's a "lemon"
can have a good set of tires.
What I most object to are the
attached strings. I keep hearing that we don't need to worry about centralized
federal control, that this is a good deal and that we can get out of the
contract whenever we want. Ever try to get out of a car lease contract?
Speaking of cars, Common Core is
somewhat like us getting a Great New Deal on a new automobile that comes with a
brand new set of top-of-the-line tires with mag wheels thrown in. Now, the car
we have been working with (Georgia Performance Standards) is only a year or two
old and we have gotten it somewhat broken in. All indications are that, with
tweaking at the local level, it would do what we need for years to come. Do we
really need a new car that we have to "refine" after the sale to fit
our needs? Do we really want that Great New Deal with its strings attached?
Let's say we can't resist the
pressures to buy this Great New Deal. We go ahead and trade-in our old car for
the new. Then we discover that, lo and behold, this new car is a
"Clunker." You know the kind, it breaks down frequently, makes funny
noises, and can't be trusted to get you where you need to go. That good set of
tires was the honey to get us to eat the lemon.
Now, I appreciate the fact that,
having bought the thing, the Governor and some state officials have taken steps
to fix problems with this lemon. But all in all, it's a bad buy. We need to go
back to the car that served us before the trade-in. Or perhaps we should
replace that Great New Deal with a car that actually suits our needs. Either
way, the experience should not go to waste. We should keep that good set of
tires when we replace the #CommonCore lemon.