NYSED Commissioner King Compares Teachers Shilling For Common Core To Tuskegee Airmen

I know, I know - you think I'm making this up.

But remember, NYSED Commissioner John King once compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and the Common Core/testing education reforms King pushes to the Civil Rights Movement, so you have to understand that the Good Doctor of the Common Core is given to making grandiose comparisons.

Which is what he did today:

State Education Commissioner John King concluded his keynote address at the State Education Department’s 20th Network Team Institute with an anecdote about his late uncle Haldane King, who was a member of the illustrious Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

King attended the Thursday unveiling of his uncle’s tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, and spoke about the “clarity of purpose” exhibited by the men who sacrificed so much for their country even in the face of racism.

The commissioner connected that sort of conviction to the work of teachers implementing the Common Core educational standards. “What we must each bring to this work is tremendous certainty about the goal — the goal of college readiness, career readiness, citizenship readiness for our students, which is what brought us to this work,” he said.

These Common Core shillery festivities were paid for by Race to the Top funds and the teachers attending this week of professional development on the Core are supposed to go back to their schools and train their colleagues in how the SED wants the Core implemented statewide.

While these "Common Core Tuskegee Airmen" in Albany appear happy to do their CCSS shill work, even Dr. King (John, not Martin) admitted the CCSS implementation isn't going too smoothly:

King acknowledged the controversy and criticism surrounding the rollout of the new standards. Only this week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino announced the creation of a “Stop Common Core” ballot line designed to tap into voter antipathy.

“There have been a lot of politics over the last four years around how this works,” King told his audience, “and I have no doubt that those politics will continue.”

Oh, you can be sure the political battle to put a stake through the heart of the Common Core Federal Standards and bury them in four different corners of the state will continue apace, Dr. King.

You and your merry men and women in reform can do your CCSS implementation work all you want.

You're losing the political battle with students, parents, teachers, the unions and many politicians - which ultimately means you're losing the battle.

Instead of comparing yourself to the Tuskegee Airmen, you should have used General Custer as a better comparison.

He too was an arrogant prick who thought he knew better than everybody else how to handle conflict, he too wasn't interested in hearing anybody's opinions on anything, he too was lacking in empathy and he too was a grand self-promoter given to making grandiose statements about himself.

In short, he was just like you, Dr. King, or should I say "Common Core Custer."

Common Core Custer.

There's a grandiose comparison for John King that fits.