Obama’s Education Secretary Loves Common Core for Your Kids, but NOT HIS
By Eric Owens. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s wife has moved to Chicago so the couple’s two daughters can attend the University of Chicago Lab School, arguably the most elite private school in Chicago — and certainly among the most expensive.
Duncan has led the Department of Education since the outset of President Barack Obama’s administration. He will shuttle between Washington and Chicago for the remainder of Obama’s second term, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The former chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools has been a forceful cheerleader for the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a set of K-12 math and language arts curriculum benchmarks and high-stakes standardized tests now being used in public schools in most states.
Duncan’s family moved into a home in an affluent area in northern Virginia when he became education secretary in 2009. His children attended public schools there in the intervening years. However, Virginia is not a Common Core state . . .
Duncan, who has bragged that he seeks employment policy guidance from Chicago street gang leaders, is not the only powerful Democrat who preaches the benefits of Common Core for America’s kids but then doesn’t actually allow his own kids to take part. (Read more from “Obama’s Education Secretary Loves Common Core for Your Kids, but NOT HIS” HERE)
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House Votes to Revive No Child Left Behind
By Michael Tennant. The Republican-led House of Representatives voted Wednesday to revive the unpopular, long-dead No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act — but just barely. The vote was 218-213, with 27 Republicans and all Democrats voting against the bill.
Even then, only some arm-twisting by the House leadership managed to save the bill. “For most of the roll call, the bill had more votes against it than in favor,” reported The Hill. “Many Republicans either held out their votes until the last minute or changed their votes under pressure from GOP leaders.”
The original No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, was hailed as a bipartisan achievement of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), then chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee; the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.); and President George W. Bush. The law expired in 2007, yet its mandates have continued in force.
“Why do states and schools continue to act as though No Child Left Behind is current law?” Representative Justin Amash (R-Mich.) asked in a Facebook post explaining his “no” vote on Wednesday’s bill. “Because Congress has continued to appropriate money for NCLB as though the funding authorization never expired! In other words, the program is legally dead, yet Congress continues to send federal funding to schools, with strings attached, as though the law remains in effect.”
The Obama administration has been all too happy to take advantage of the continued funding of NCLB, which has been despised by parents, teachers, schools, and states for its emphasis on standardized testing and centralization of education policy in Washington. The administration (probably illegally) granted NCLB waivers to states on the condition that they adopt Common Core standards. With 47 states having received waivers, it’s not hard to figure out why the allegedly voluntary, state-led Common Core has swept the nation. (Read more from this story HERE)
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