Dear editor,
Oct. 18, the Northwest Florida Daily News featured Okaloosa Schools Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson’s guest column encouraging citizens to speak “with one voice” about assessments.
The assessments are no longer called “tests,” but “high-stakes” tests. Students give the “state approved” answer, or be labeled uncooperative — or worse.
These labels follow students through their academic and work lives.
The assessments are part of unconstitutional federal control of education called Common Core Standards. Cash-strapped states were bribed into implementing CCS in fall of 2009.
In 2014, the Florida Legislature did away with the words “Common Core,” added to them, and renamed them Florida Standards.
The basis of Florida Standards is still CCS.
The Republican National Committee, state and local Republican groups have issued resolutions against CCS. The resolution is part of the 2016 Republican platform. Federal overreach, expense and compromised student privacy are cited.
For Democrats, the anxiety is because tests, fraught with technical errors, are linked to teacher pay and school ranking.
There is common ground for Republicans and Democrats to put pressure on the state legislature to do away with Common Core, once and for all.
To speak “with one voice,” as Ms. Jackson pleads, we must understand the problem.
At the Republican Executive Committee’s Nov. 7 seminar in Fort Walton Beach, three nationally known speakers on Common Core Standards will address: what is CCS; who’s behind the curtain; what is it doing to the rising generation; and where to go from here.
The public is invited.
See www.OkaloosaGOP.com or call 512-584-4589 for more information.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LETTER: Florida Standards must be stopped