RNC Passes Resolution Against Common Core

This news will make Jeb Bush very, very sad:

Los Angeles, CA - Today, the Republican National Committee meeting in Los Angeles voted to oppose the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), stating that they “…do not believe in a one size fits all approach to education and support providing broad education choices to parents and children at the State and local level.”

The resolution adopted by the committee goes on to say, “(The) Republican National Committee recognizes the CCSS for what it is– an inappropriate overreach to standardize and control the education of our children so they will conform to a preconceived ‘normal…

Here is the resolution in full:

RESOLUTION CONCERNING COMMON CORE EDUCATION STANDARDS

WHEREAS, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are a set of academic standards, promoted and supported by two private membership organizations, the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) as a method for conforming American students to uniform (“one size fits all”) achievement goals to make them more competitive in a global marketplace, (1.) and

WHEREAS, the NGA and the CCSSO, received tens of millions of dollars from private third parties to advocate for and develop the CCSS strategy, subsequently created the CCSS through a process that was not subject to any freedom of information acts or other sunshine laws, and never piloted the CCSS, and

WHEREAS, even though Federal Law prohibits the federalizing of curriculum (2.), the Obama Administration accepted the CCSS plan and used 2009 Stimulus Bill money to reward the states that were most committed to the president’s CCSS agenda; but, they failed to give states, their legislatures and their citizens time to evaluate the CCSS before having to commit to them, and

WHEREAS, the NGA and CCSSO in concert with the same corporations developing the CCSS ‘assessments’ have created new textbooks, digital media and other teaching materials aligned to the standards which must be purchased and adopted by local school districts in order that students may effectively compete on CCSS ‘assessments’, and

WHEREAS, the CCSS program includes federally funded testing and the collection and sharing of massive amounts of personal student and teacher data, and

WHEREAS, the CCSS effectively removes educational choice and competition since all schools and all districts must use Common Core ‘assessments’ based on the Common Core standards to allow all students to advance in the school system and to advance to higher education pursuits; therefore be it

RESOLVED, the Republican National Committee, as stated in the 2012 Republican Party Platform, “do not believe in a one size fits all approach to education and support providing broad education choices to parents and children at the State and local level,” (p35)(3.), which is best based on a free market approach to education for students to achieve individual excellence; and, be it further

RESOLVED, the Republican National Committee recognizes the CCSS for what it is– an inappropriate overreach to standardize and control the education of our children so they will conform to a preconceived “normal,” and, be it further

RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee rejects the collection of personal student data for any non-educational purpose without the prior written consent of an adult student or a child student’s parent and that it rejects the sharing of such personal data, without the prior written consent of an adult student or a child student’s parent, with any person or entity other than schools or education agencies within the state, and be it finally

RESOLVED, the 2012 Republican Party Platform specifically states the need to repeal the numerous federal regulations which interfere with State and local control of public schools, (p36) (3.); and therefore, the Republican National Committee rejects this CCSS plan which creates and fits the country with a nationwide straitjacket on academic freedom and achievement.

Glenn Beck went after the Common Core and made the connection between the corporations and non-profits pushing it and the money they stand to make off of it, although he failed to mention his old employer, Rupert Murdoch, as being one of the prime movers behind the Common Core (as witnessed by the Common Core rah rah stories in the NY Post.)

In any case, opposition to the Common Core is now coming from both the right and the left.

Let Me Know When They're Eating Generic Dogfood, Okay?

From Bloomberg Businessweek:

Wall Street headhunter Daniel Arbeeny drove to Fairway Market in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn on a recent Sunday to buy discounted salmon for $5.99 a pound. “They have a circular that they leave in front of the buildings in my neighborhood,” says Arbeeny, 49, who lives in nearby Cobble Hill and also shops at Costco (COST). He hasn’t always been bargain-minded. While declining to give specifics, Arbeeny, managing principal at CMF Partners, says executive-search veterans like him who work with hedge funds and banks had been able to make about $500,000 in a good year.

Recently, his income has “gone down tremendously,” he says, and he no longer goes on annual ski trips to Whistler, Tahoe, or Aspen. He’s learned to appreciate supermarket circulars, keeping an eye out for good prices on his favorite cereal, Wheat Chex. “We sit there, and I look through all of them to find out where it’s worth going,” he says. “Wow, did I waste a lot of money.”

...

Smaller bonus checks hitting employee bank accounts across the financial-services industry in recent weeks are making it hard to maintain the lifestyles that workers are accustomed to, according to interviews with bankers and their accountants, therapists, advisers, and headhunters. “People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” says Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. He’s spending more time talking with Wall Street clients about their expenses, telling them “you don’t have to cut that—but if you don’t cut that, then you’ve got to cut this,” he says. “They say, ‘But I can’t.’ And I say, ‘But you must.’ ”

So sad - less money for cocaine and high priced hookers.

Less money for ski trips to Tahoe and gambling junkets to Vegas.

Fewer nights at the strip club, fewer dollars for the g-strings when they're there.

So sad.

No wonder they're stabbing cabbies instead of paying their bills...