We thank The Pulse 2016 for publishing Dr. Effrem's latest article on the role of education in the presidential election. This article has to do with businessman Donald Trump's answer to a a question about the roles of the federal government. Here is an excerpt: However, Trump added to his long string of contradictions and dizzyingly rapid position changes during last Tuesday's presidential town hall on CNN. A combat veteran asked, "In your opinion, what are the top three functions of the United States government?" The tycoon responded that after security, the top functions of the federal government were education and health care. He then added housing. Here is the video of the exchange:
As is his pattern when questioned, Trump tried to walk his statement on education back a moment later, which turned into this steaming pile of incoherence: ANDERSON COOPER: Aren't you against the federal government's involvement in education? Don't you want it to devolve to states?DONALD TRUMP: I want it to go to state, yes. Absolutely. I want right now...
But then when Cooper followed up again: COOPER: So that's not part of what the federal government's --TRUMP: The federal government, but the concept of the country is the concept that we have to have education within the country, and we have to get rid of Common Core, and it should be brought to the state level.
Despite this, as with his idea to expand libel laws to go after journalists that say negative things about him, Mr. Trump again displayed his frightening lack of constitutional understanding. Obviously, government control of education, health care and housing are exactly the big government establishment solutions parents fighting Common Core and Fed Ed, conservatives, and Republicans all oppose. That philosophy is much closer to the positions of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on all three......For parents who have been fighting the battles against the Common Core -- and who have been bringing to Read more
A recent article chided people who are upset with Governor Scott about Common Core, the deceptive rebrand to the Florida Standards and the lack of real effort against federal overreach. The author wrote: Yet critics blame Scott for issues that are beyond his purview! For example, it's clear that Governor Scott objects to Common Core through his 2013 Executive Order against a curriculum funded by federal non-profits. Using strong words against the Federal government's un-constitutional authority to unilaterally set academic standards for Florida Scott states: "Floridians will not accept government intrusion into the academic standards that are taught to our students." Yet dissenters vow to disregard Scott's successes and are prepared to walk-the-gang-plank for a single issue that has already swung towards Florida state and local standards. The voting public is well aware that Charlie Crist is salivating over this Common Core confrontation and waiting in the wings to re-install the federal Obama/Crist Common Core standards.
What have these "strong words" accomplished? Nothing! What successes have there been? None! Despite Scott saying that " Common Core is out in Florida" we are still in Common Core, deceptively called the Florida Standards by his administration. This has been admitted by Commissioner Stewart, Speaker Weatherford and Jeb Bush. We still have an invasive, expensive test with a pledge to give all of the testing data that include "mindsets" to the federal government. This test is made by a company that is far more into testing behavior and attitudes than academics and admits to data mining individual Florida students and teachers.If Crist were to win and "re-install the federal Obama/Crist Common Core standards," no one would to be able to tell a difference, because that is what we have now.Instead of standing up to the federal government, Governor Scott even said that Lee County was right to rescind its vote to opt out of state tests because Read more