News
Colonel Allen West Joins Fight Against Common Core in Florida and Nationally
February, 2014
Karen R. Effrem, MD
The Constitutional Coalition held its twenty-fifth annual Educational Policy Conference in St. Louis on January 30th February 1st. I had the honor of attending the event with FSCCC partner Florida Eagle Forum President Pat Andrews, her husband Mark Andrews, fellow FSCCC co-founder and director of Education for Florida Eagle Forum, Randy Osborne and his wife Anne. There were many fantastic speakers that included William Korach from St. Augustine and publisher of the Report Card. He talked about the anti-American bias in the Common Core English standards text exemplars in Appendix B. Here is a quote from an excellent report on the conference by Drew Zahn of World Net Daily titled "Parents warned: Big Brother owns your children:"
"'This is the end of American exceptionalism. You will not see Alexis de Tocqueville anywhere in these materials,' Korach said. 'There's nothing about the Pilgrims coming to America for religious freedom it's not discussed. ... All they say is the British colonies 'established racial rigid hierarchy.'"
'There's hardly anything at all about the Declaration of Independence, one sentence on it and no explanation. There's one phrase on Washington,' he continued. 'There's none of the ideals motivating the Revolution ... no discussion that we believe our rights come from God and not the Crown ... no mention at all of Thomas Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison or Patrick Henry. ... 'Give me liberty or give me death' it's not there.'"
'There's hardly anything at all about the Declaration of Independence, one sentence on it and no explanation. There's one phrase on Washington,' he continued. 'There's none of the ideals motivating the Revolution ... no discussion that we believe our rights come from God and not the Crown ... no mention at all of Thomas Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison or Patrick Henry. ... 'Give me liberty or give me death' it's not there.'"
Perhaps the most powerful speech was the Friday night keynote given by former Florida Congressman, Colonel Allen West who clearly and cogently explained many of the problems with Common Core. Here are some excerpts from that tremendous address titled "Restoring the Republic: Restoring Truth and Integrity in American Electoral Politics:"
"We have institutionalized insanity in our schools. DC bureaucrats believe that educational decisions are best made in DC and are telling parents all across America to butt out of your child's education."
"The ongoing dual purpose of the [US] Department of Education seems to be:
"The ongoing dual purpose of the [US] Department of Education seems to be:
(1) Don't ever interrupt the money flow from government, rather add to it
(2) Seize as much decision making power as possible and regulate at every opportunity, for they, not you, are deciding the standards."
(2) Seize as much decision making power as possible and regulate at every opportunity, for they, not you, are deciding the standards."
"States are fighting tooth and nail against President Obama's newest educational experiment which we all know as Common Core....and Common Core is rotten to the core. DC bureaucrats believe that education decisions are best made in DC and are telling parents all across America to butt out of your child's education."
"Common Core is a top down national curriculum, the culmination of what the progressives have pushed for many years."
"Common Core is the manifestation of collective progressivism in education---it treats every student exactly the same and does not allow for the gifted student to advance."
"The end game is to establish federal control over what our children learn and effectively remove local control of curriculum."
"Standardization is the enemy of integrity."
"Let's put Common Sense into our curriculum, not Common Core."
During the conference, Colonel West also did an interview with the Report Card, and had a stern warning for Governor Scott and the Republican establishment that seem to be trying to do a stealth implementation of Common Core without really changing anything:"Common Core is a top down national curriculum, the culmination of what the progressives have pushed for many years."
"Common Core is the manifestation of collective progressivism in education---it treats every student exactly the same and does not allow for the gifted student to advance."
"The end game is to establish federal control over what our children learn and effectively remove local control of curriculum."
"Standardization is the enemy of integrity."
"Let's put Common Sense into our curriculum, not Common Core."
"Colonel West stated: 'If Gov. Scott does not clearly renounce the Common Core for Florida, he WILL lose the upcoming election. The Republican Clubs and the Republican Executive Committees are overwhelmingly opposed to Common Core.'"
Let us all hope that the governor and legislature takes heed and abandons this "Common Core Cover-up." Florida needs a true effort to take Florida out of the Common Core system of national standards, federally funded and controlled national tests, and invasive federal data collection.
