Letter to the Editor: Common Core

To Whom It May Concern,

Ahhh…the comfort zone!  It’s such an imposition and inconvenience to have to go outside of it. But, what happens when you realize that a deliberate deception has occurred while you were sleeping? And what if it involved your children? Well, you either rise up or act or you fluff your pillow and doze off again.

    In this case, the deliberate deception has crept up on all of us and our children have become the victims. Deceptions name? Common Core! The Common Core Standards have been imposed on nearly ALL school districts in the US.

    These standards are being mandated by the federal government. There was minimal public engagement in the development of Common Core. Special Interest groups not subject to Sunshine Laws and, without a record of success in even one school, will now determine the future for 45,000,000 students across the US. And WE must advocate for responsible, common sense, child centered education solutions.

    Common Core mandates comprehensive data collection; which can include medical, psychological, religious information and up to 416 unspecified data points. This information is tracked starting at pre-school and follows the child through age 20 and into the workforce. Educator information will also be collected via a shared national data base! Household information including personal medical information, home safety and work schedules can be collected. Anyone with an undefined “educational interest” will have access to all this information including children’s records without parental consent. We must insist on parental, student, and citizen privacy as outlined per the United States Constitution!

    A 2012 Pioneer Institute study estimated that transitioning to the new standards will cost states about $16 billion over seven years! Colorado is geared propose again at $1,000,000,000,00 educational tax increase without specification of where dollars are spent. Today we beat almost every other industrialized nation in education funding. Since the induction of the U.S. Department of Education in 1971 education spending per pupil has gone up over 133% yet test scores have remained stagnant!

    All control over standards will rest upon ANONYMOUS interests in Washington, D.C..No chance to protect your child from harmful content. There is no one in Colorado, with legal authority to turn to in order to implement content changes. We certainly support local control!!

    Please wake up and let your curiosity “get the best of you” and attend an informational meeting on Common Core, Monday, April 21st at 6:30 pm Cultural Event Center in the City Complex. 

P.S. Your child is taking a standardized test this week (8th grade, next week) called CMAS. This test is brand new and is PURE Common Core. Don’t forget these are standards written without ANY public (educators, parents, etc..)  for ALL children in the US. No one can see this test! If the child needs a scratch paper, it must be CMAS paper, which will be marked with the student’s identifier (bar code), sealed in an envelope and sent directly to NCS Pearson ( a global, international computer system). So, what data has been gathered in this “testing process?”

Thanks for you,

Barbara Hernandez
8305 Surrey Ridge
Lamar, Co 81052