News

FSCCC Interviewed on Political Peril for Governor Scott After Sham Standards Changes

February, 2014

Alison Neilsen of Sunshine State News did an important story on the potential political dangers to Governor Rick Scott's re-election bid after his education department and appointed state board of education put through the deceptive "lipstick on a pig" standards changes and name change.  Here is an excerpt:


Though the furor has been building over recent months, it hit a crescendo Tuesday, when the state Board of Education voted to approve nearly 100 changes to Common Core -- none of them drastic -- yet only gave opponents two minutes each at the podium. Clearly opponents believed board members had their minds made up and the governor was in league with them. The crowd grew angrier as the meeting progressed.

At one point, a Common Core opponent turned away from the podium and toward a representative from Scott's office, vowing that if the governor didn't't't't oppose the standards, thousands of Floridians would't be giving their vote to him in November.

"If [Gov. Scott] doesn't firmly stand behind this, I guarantee, the conservatives in this state will sit this election out and he won't get the support ... he got last time," he said. The email drive started from there. In an instant, or so it seemed, Common Core opponents were ready to hit politicians where it hurts: the ballot box.

Without their votes, Scott in particular could be in trouble on Election Day.
 
"I think a lot of people -- parents, teachers, grandparents -- are very concerned about this, and I don't think they're going to take this lying down," said Karen Effrem of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. "I think both legislators and the governor [who support Common Core] do so at their own political peril."

Effrem confirmed there was a definite possibility of thousands of voters sitting out or voting down a ticket over Common Core.

Instead of voting for Scott, Effrem also said some may choose to vote for Libertarian Adrien Wylie, who is strongly opposed to Common Core.

"I don't think it'll be a huge wave," she said. "But it could be enough with the polls already close between Gov. Scott and Charlie Crist to cause problems."
 

Governor Scott has moved to the extent he has on Common Core because he realizes that he is in trouble with his base on this issue.  These efforts so far, however, are disdainful of the intelligence of those voters, without whom he cannot be re-elected.  If the governor wants to win over those one million plus voters in key groups, he, the legislature, and the department of education had better stop the deception and denigration of opponents and really do something substantive about Common Core.


 


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