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Adkins’ K-12 Subcommittee Deceives Public, Puts Lipstick on a Pig & Shirks Responsibility

The House K-12 Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Janet Adkins (R-Fernandina Beach), met today to vote on a committee bill that strikes about three dozen references to Common Core in state statute and works to change the name to Florida's standards. 
Media coverage about this deceptive tactic started last week with an excellent article by James Call of The Florida Current who compared the move to expunging Winston Smith's life from the public record in Orwell's 1984.  Allison Neilsen of Sunshine State News also wrote a great article.

Randy Osborne, director of education for coalition partner Florida Eagle Forum; Catherine Baer, chairwoman of coalition partner Tea Party Network; and Meredith Mears, co-founder of FPACC, all gave excellent testimony.  They spoke about how deceptive this maneuver is, how many people across this state and nation oppose Common Core, and that parents are very angry.  (See hearing video starting at 10:00)

Randy also covered the fact that despite assurances from Commissioner Stewart and state chiefs, individual data is still going to the federal government.  (See the analysis by Dr. Karen Effrem and the national statement calling this out signed by eight national and thirty-four state groups in twenty-eight states)

Chairwoman Adkins then proceeded to try to shirk the responsibility of the elected legislators to their constituents to manage the funds and oversee the policy of the Department of Education.  She had the temerity to say that it was only the appointed State Board of Education's responsibility to set the standards and that the committee has no role in the standards policy.  (See video at 20:59).  It was shocking to hear an elected official so totally abdicate her and the committee's role to appointed bureaucrats in the state and federal governments.

Some good statements were made by Representatives Charles Hood (R-Daytona Beach Shores 22:57) and Karen Castor-Dentel (D-Maitland 21:57), expressing concern.  Rep. Hood actually used the phrase "lipstick on a pig." However, no one on the committee actually was willing to stop this pig lipstick application bill, and it passed unanimously. 

This type of dishonest maneuver will only fuel the growing outrage over Common Core.  Legislators who ignore, or worse yet, deceive, their constituents do so at their own political peril