Common Core Considered "Radioactive" And "Toxic" These Days

The AFT leadership may have decided that the Common Core still holds "promise" but much of the rest of America is looking to bury the standards in the same place they put nuclear waste:

The National Governors Association (NGA) owns the copyright – along with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) – to the Common Core State Standards. When the nationalized standards are mentioned these days, however, many governors would rather change the subject.

In fact, the NGA, holding summer meetings in Nashville, had not even placed the controversial standards on its official agenda, a sign, as the Wall Street Journal states, “the bipartisan idea has become a political minefield.”

Much to the surprise of many Washington, D.C., pundits, the standards, and even the name itself, “Common Core,” have “become, in a sense, radioactive,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R), according to the Associated Press.

...

 Indeed, for Republicans, the issue of the Common Core has also been described by former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) as “toxic,” and has served to separate the GOP establishment, supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, from constitutional conservatives who oppose the federal government’s hand in pushing Common Core through President Obama’s Race to the Top (RttT) stimulus program and the promise of relief from federal No Child Left Behind restrictions.

Huckabee used to be a big supporter of CCSS.

Now he's against them.

Bobby Jindal used to be a big supporter of CCSS.

Now he's fighting to pull his state of Louisiana out of using both the standards and the tests associated with them.

Just last January, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin defended the CCSS at a NGA meeting.

Last month, she signed a bill pulling her state out of using the standards, a move that a court backed up today as constitutional.

Even the pro-testing, pro-CCSS Chris Christie is reacting to the changed politics around the Core and the ancillary tests that go with it - he announced a review of the so-called effectiveness of the CCSS tests in his state of New Jersey.

Jeb Bush still loves the standards, as does Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, Randi Weingarten, Michael Mulgrew, Bill Gates and a host of editorial boards around the country.

But when you see all these governors (or former governors like Huckabee) who used to support the standards who are running from them as fast as they can, touting their opposition, that's when you know that the politics around the CCSS battle have really shifted.

Maybe Weingarten and Mulgrew think they've done their part to save the standards after engineering a pro-CCSS resolution at the AFT convention last weekend.

But it's pretty clear from what's happening outside of the Beltway that the trajectory in the CCSS battle is not positive for the CCSS.

That's what happens when a reform becomes "radioactive."

Stories About Praying For The Death Of Chris Christie Are Much Exagerrated

Anti-union newspaper editors and Governor Christie are making a big deal out of this:

A furious New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie yesterday tore into the state's teachers union for circulating a memo that featured a prayer for his death.

"To pray for my death" is "beyond the pale," said Christie, who has long been waging war against the New Jersey Education Association.

The newly elected Republican governor made it clear that he was speaking about the union leaders, not the state's teachers.

"I'm sure there are teachers all across New Jersey who . . . are going to be ashamed. Ashamed to be a part of a union leadership that would actually pray for the death of an elected official," Christie said.

"I wonder what the children of New Jersey will think when the leadership of the teachers union is praying for the governor to die?"

The NJEA memo included a mock "prayer" suggesting Christie should suffer the same fate as Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and celebrity pitchman Billy Mays, all of whom recently died.

It was signed by NJEA field representatives and distributed to union members in Bergen County, The Record of Hackensack reported.

The note also was posted on an NJEA Facebook page called "New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze," which has 67,000 members.

Of course the state union leaders condemned the "joke" and apologized to the governor for any offense.

And remember, the "joke" came from a bunch of field reps in one county in Jersey - it's not like the head of the NJEA signed off on this thing.

Nonetheless Christie and the anti-unions newspapers have dug their teeth into this story in order to demonize the teachers union even more than they already have.

I have a couple of things to say here.

First, the "joke" was a stupid thing to say and an even stupider thing to put into writing. It is inexcusable.

Second, the "joke" does show the feelings teachers have toward Christie, however, as he wages a war to the death to destroy the teachers unions, teachers' rights and teachers jobs. To paraphrase Shakespeare - He who takes away my way to make my livelihood takes away my life. This is serious business as Christie wields a heavy hammer to destroy the union. Emotions are raw, as teachers turn on their TV's every day or read the papers and see themselves demonized as "bad," "incompetent," "selfish," and "in need of firing." You can understand where the gallows humor of the "joke" came from, though I repeat that it was a) not funny and b) not helpful in pushing forward the teachers' positions. Rather, it has given Christie and the media something else to demonize teachers with.

Third, have you looked at Chris Christie lately? Take a good look at him. Seriously. There's no need to pray for this guy's death. There are no givens in life, but judging by the guy's sedentary lifestyle, excessive weight and apparent level of health, he's taking care of his death all on his own. No prayers needed.

Remember Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas? He was once a very big man too, but he decided to lose a lot of weight in a healthy way, to change his eating habits, to begin exercising and to write a book about it in order to promote the message that if he, a fast food junkie, could get healthy, anybody could.

Chris Christie might want to read that book. Might even want to talk to Huckabee. He can find the Huckster here. Find out how Huckabee lost all that weight and got healthy while still working as governor of Arkansas.

That would be one way to turn the "Praying for the Death of Chris Christie" outrage stories into something good and productive for Christie.

But I bet he doesn't do that.

Instead, I bet he continues to use it as a political weapon to bludgeon the teachers union and teachers with it.