THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE

Education is a power reserved to the states and their citizens. In Federalist Paper 45, James Madison wrote, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." The Founders established a compound Republic of divided units of government to prevent the centralization of power. They knew that as power grows, liberty retreats. The very attempt to establish nationwide educational standards, federally driven testing, and a centralized datatracking system on students strikes at the very heart of the constitutional balance that maintains a free nation. Join the fight to pass a heritage of liberty to the next generation. Allies Americans for Prosperity * American Principles Project * American Values * Cato Institute * Citizen Impact, USA * U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn * Concerned Women for America * U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz * Eagle Forum * U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer * Freedom Works * U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley * Gov. Nikki Haley * Heartland Institute * Heritage Foundation * Home School Legal Defense Association * Hoover Institute * U.S. Sen. James Inhofe * U.S. Sen. Mike Lee * John Locke Foundation * Gov. Bob McDonnell * Former Atty. Gen. Ed Meese * Pacific Research Institute * former Gov. Sarah Palin * U.S. Sen. Rand Paul * Gov. Mike Pence * Gov. Rick Perry * Pioneer Institute * Republican National Committee * U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts * former Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum * U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions * Truth in American Education * Washington Policy Center

Footnotes

Educate yourself and others on the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Resource web sites: truthinamericaneducation.com stopcommoncore.com

EDUCATE

1 http://www.americanprinciplesinaction.org/blog/preserving

Call, e-mail or write your governor and state legislators today and tell them to withdraw your state from the Common Core.

ACT

-innocence/education/controlling-education-from-the-top/ 2 http://www.corestandards.org/terms-of-use 3 http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/executivesummary.pdf 4 http://pioneerinstitute.org/download/the-road-to-a-national -curriculum/ 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9frsExQgxVo 6 http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/ parcc-cooperative-agreement.pdf 7 http://dianeravitch.net/2013/04/08/why-is-the-usdepartment-of-education-weakening-ferpa/ 8 http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/ Stotsky-Invited-Testimony-for-Georgia.pdf 9 http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/ Stotsky-Invited-Testimony-for-Georgia.pdf 10 http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/ uploads/2000/01/Stotsky-Invited-Testimony-for-Georgia.pdf 11 http://www.christianpost.com/news/common-corecirriculum-a-look-behind-the-curtain-of-hidden-language92070/ 12 http://www.uaedreform.org/wp-content/ uploads/2000/01/Stotsky-Invited-Testimony-for-Georgia.pdf 13 http://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/28/david-coleman-willchange-the-sat-to-align-with-common-core/

It would be foolish and irresponsible to place our childrens future in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and special interest groups thousands of miles away in Washington, virtually eliminating parents participation in their childrens education. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas (rejecting the Common Core standards)

For more information: stopcommoncore.com

American Principles In Action Jane Robbins, Senior Fellow

jrobbins@americanprinciplesproject.org americanprinciplesinaction.org
Concerned Women for America of Georgia LAC Tanya Ditty, State Director

Hundreds of Republican, 912, and Tea Party groups have joined the effort.

truthinamericaneducation.com stopcommoncore.com

(770) 617-1987 | director@georgia.cwfa.org | ga.cwfa.org

What Is Common Core, and How Did We Get Here?

Common Core is a set of K-12 standards in English language arts (ELA) and math, developed not by the states, but primarily by trade groups and private interests in Washington, D.C. Funding came primarily from another private group, the Gates Foundation.1 Even before the standards were released, executive branch officials in most states agreed to implement Common Core word for word to compete for federal Race to the Top grants. Some of these states received grants, others did not, but all locked themselves in to Common Core. All this was done without the consent of legislators, parents, teachers, and taxpayers.

Federal Control Over Curriculum Through Federally Dictated Tests

Most states have committed to implementing the national tests starting in 2014. The Obama Administration is funding the tests and monitoring their development and thus controlling what is on the tests and, inevitably, what will be taught in the classroom.4 Even states that have withdrawn from the two federally funded tests will have to administer Common Core-aligned tests and what is on the tests will dictate curriculum. The only flexibility states will have is the flexibility to choose one Common Core-aligned textbook over another Common Core-aligned textbook.

high school to college and college to career.5 Any data that the national testing consortia receive on studentseven personally identifiable datamust be shared with the U.S. Department of Education.6 The Obama Administration is increasingly aggressive in demanding personal student data from states in exchange for grants. And the Administration has gutted federal studentprivacy law,7 so that data can be distributed almost without limit without parental consent, or even parental knowledge.

The only mathematician on the Common Core Validation Committee said its almost a joke to think students educated under Common Core would be prepared for math at a university. He and other mathematicians estimate that by grade 8, U.S. math students will be two years behind their counterparts in high-achieving countries.11 Even a Common Core proponent admitted that many states previous standards were at least as good as, an in many ways superior to, Common Core. The Common Core philosophy: Students should be trained as workers, not educated as human beings and citizen-leaders. Evidence of this philosophy: In high school the study of classic literature is to be diminished to less than half of the English class, and replaced with informational texts such as government documents and technical manuals.12

Training Students for Entry-Level Jobs, Not Educating Them for Life
The Common Core standards have never been piloted or tested. The How many school claim that they are years will be rigorous and will make sacrificed? How students college- and many student career-ready is pure successes will be guesswork. sacrificed? How A Common Core develmany good teachers oper admitted that Comwill be mon Core is designed to sacrificed? How prepare students for non- many choices will be selective community colsacrificed? The leges, not universities.8 answer is too many and my kids are going Despite initial promises to to be wrapped up in the contrary, the standits web. ards are not A frustrated parent internationally benchmarked.9 The nations premier expert on ELA standards gives the Common Core standards a D. She says they consist of empty skill sets, not content knowledge, and will not prepare students for authentic college coursework.10

Whos Going to Pay for This?

In addition to expensive teacherretraining and textbook purchases, the Common Core testing will be exorbitantly expensive. Many state testing budgets will at least double when the computerized tests are implemented, not including infrastructure costs. There is insufficient money in most state budgets to pay for this. Local districts will be hit with an enormous unfunded mandate.

Education Without Representation?

By adopting the Common Core national standards, states have surrendered control over ELA and math to unaccountable bureaucrats and special interests in Washington, D.C. Common Core is owned, copyrighted, and controlled by these interests.2 States cannot change one word of the standards3 unless dozens of other states and organizations agree to those changes.

Threats to School Choice and HomeSchoolers

Charter schools will have to administer the Common Core tests, which necessitates teaching Common Core in the classroom. The new head of the College Board is threatening to align the SAT to Common Core. So unless states disrupt this plan by pulling out of Common Core,13 even homeschoolers will be caught in the web. There will be no escape.

Threats to Student and Family Privacy

Common Core is part of a broader federal effort to collect massive amounts of personal student and family data to share with other government agencies and even private companies. According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Hopefully, someday we can track children from preschool to high school and from

Across the nation, people are realizing they have been excluded from exercising one of their most treasured rights: the right to control the education of their children.