Today the Daily News reports that Regents Chancellor Tisch launched an attack against Astorino as well:
Astorino's pronouncement pulled immediate criticism from state Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, who told the Daily News in an email, "If you are against standards, you are contributing to our decline."
As is usual with education deformers, Tisch sets up a straw man argument here, equating Astorino's opposition to the Common Core State (sic) Standards with opposition to ALL standards, which is most definitely not what Astorino said in the video.
Watch for yourself:
Astorino very clearly states that we don't need lower standards in our schools, we need higher standards.
Astorino also clearly states that "many experts now agree that Cuomo's Common Core may actually lower standards for our school children over time" and points to the problems with "Common Core math for our younger children," which "wasn't developed properly."
He then tells a story of his children having trouble with their Common Core math homework and he and his wife having trouble helping them because "Common Core math methods left us all scratching our heads."
These criticisms of Common Core are widespread across the country - just google "Common Core" and "math" and see what comes up.
Chancellor Tisch may think creating a straw man argument for the Astorino opt out problem (Astorino doesn't want standards in schools) and knocking it down (he's contributing to the decline of this country with his opposition to the Common Core) will be an effective way to defuse it.
She is wrong.
Her dishonest and deceitful method of pushback will do nothing but fan the flames of the opposition against the Common Core, the Common Core tests, and the rest of the NYSED/Regents/Cuomo reform agenda.
This has been a problem with deformers since the beginning of the CCSS pushback.
Rather than honestly deal with the criticism of the CCSS, they have created straw man arguments about the opposition or tried to marginalize critics as wackos and crazies.
But as we can see from the burgeoning opt out movement, the growing opposition to the Common Core, and the anger aimed at the education reform movement, that deformer pushback strategy is failing miserably.
The deformer attacks against the opposition are getting shriller and shriller and it speaks to the desperation they're feeling over the impending demise of the education reform agenda they worked so hard to shove down the throats of America.
"Astorino also clearly states that "many experts now agree that Cuomo's Common Core may actually lower standards for our school children over time""
ReplyDeleteWasn't Common Core adopted before Cuomo took office? So wouldn't that make this statement rhetoric?
"and points to the problems with "Common Core math for our younger children," which "wasn't developed properly.""
What about the math educators who approve of the "Common Core Math", because it is logical and gives a strong foundation of understanding how math works. Wouldn't someone with a Ph.D in Math have a better handle on it than a politician?
Actually Astorino's statements would be better described as pandering.
DeleteAnonymous #1: Sandra Stotsky, formerly of the Common Core Validation Panel, says the math standards do the very opposite of what you claim they do:
Deletehttp://www.patriotledger.com/article/20140118/Opinion/140129877
Anonymous #2: When you say pandering, do you mean the way Andrew M. Cuomo pandered when he showed up at his campaign donor, Eva Moskowitz's, pro-charter rally in Albany and promised to give her every charter protection he could in the budget then did exactly that?
By pandering, do you mean the way John Flanagan takes all that Michelle Rhee/StudentsFirst money, then promotes her issues in the NY State Senate?
By pandering, do you mean the way Representative George Miller, ranking Dem on the House Education Committee, takes all that for-profit college money and then promotes for-profit colleges in the Congress?
Because those instances are pandering.
What Astorino is doing is opting his kids who go to public school out of the CCSS tests.
{Pandering is the act of expressing one's views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal-- Wikipedia}
DeleteAll of those are very good examples of pandering. As are Astroino's comments. It's very kind of you to point out additional examples for the group so that we may all understand.
By standing with the opt out parents, and blaming Cuomo for the common core he is attempting to unite the opt outers against Cuomo (the enemy of my enemy is my friend).
If he were truly involved in the 'opt out' movement he could have done so quietly or with a minimum of fan fare. He could have simply said "I'm choosing to opt my children out of the NYS high stakes tests"
Do you have a problem with Astorino trying to unite the opt outers against Cuomo?
DeleteCuomo has pandered himself on CCSS, saying when he encountered CCSS protesters up in Rochester that he would be standing with them if his kids were in public schools too.
Then he engineered a CCSS panel that was rigged from the start to reinforce the CCSS and the CCSS testing regime.
So why shouldn't Astorino use this issue against Cuomo?
I have no problem with him doing so.
Quite frankly, this "pander" is a lot more honest than some of the others I listed, since Astorino's kids are actually in public school and having to suffer under Cuomo's Common Core agenda.
Unlike Sheriff Andy's kids, or NYSED Commissioner King's kids, who are in private school.
Like most when faced with facts they don't like. You muddy the waters. I'm not defending Cuomo. I didn't bring up Cuomo or King. I'm simply saying that Astorino is pandering to you opt-outers. And performing a "noble" act for less than noble reasons lessons the nobility of that act.
DeleteYou need to ask yourself. Would he have opted out if he wasn't running.