Politicians In Albany Scared Over Common Core

Commenter at a Buffalo News article on the increasing opposition to the CCSS in NY State:

A childhood friend of mine works in politics. I saw him recently and conversation turned to the issues highlighted in this article. He said, and I'll never forget the look on his face, "the Common Core has politicians in Albany scared." His office's experience mirrors Corwin's. Calls and letters regarding the Common Core, in particular the testing, are coming in every day from every demographic. Most Albany politicos supported these reforms back in 2012 because they thought the public supported it, but now support appears to be souring. This is a big issue.

And from the article:

Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, a Clarence Republican, hosted a community forum in Akron earlier this month to hear reactions to the state’s changes to public education. The meeting made clear, she said, that testing and privacy issues topped the list of concerns.

In the past, she said, one constituency might raise concerns about a particular educational issue. When teacher evaluations were enacted, for example, Corwin heard mainly from teachers. This time is different.

“This one seems to affect all the different groups,” Corwin said. “The administrators have a position on it. The teachers have a position on it. The parents and students have a position on it. So that part is unique, in that it cuts across all stakeholders.”

It seems the only people still on board with the "full speed ahead" approach are NYSED officials, a majority of the Board of Regents, and the Gates Foundation officials who are running policy at SED.

Make no mistake, there will be changes to Common Core come January when the legislature comes back into session.

When an upstate Republican says the criticism of the Common Core, the testing and the data collection are coming from all stakeholders, that means there is trouble for politicians who continue to carry the ed reform water buckets.

We need to continue the pressure at the forums, in the newspapers, over the phone and in emails and letter to the politicians - make sure the people in government know that there WILL be a political price to be paid if they continue to support the Common Core, the APPR teacher evaluation system, the Endless Testing being pushed by SED and the Regents, and the inBloom data collection project.

They must not be allowed to tinker at the edges of these reforms - the whole thing needs to go into the garbage and we need to start all over again developing standards, tests, evaluations and a sane data policy.