News

Next Plan to Deceive is to Pretend to Reject Federal Race to the Top Money

March, 2014

We have it on good authority that there is about to be a new step in the attempt to salvage the reputation of Common Core, Governor Scott's re-election, and Jeb Bush.  The plan is apparently to make a big production of rejecting federal funds for Race to the Top.  This is because we together have made such an issue about this federal grant and the memorandum of understanding that former Governor Charlie Crist and former Commissioner Eric Smith signed condemning the state to the awful Common Core standards and tests. That memorandum required that the state adopt 100% of the Common Core standards with the allowance for addition of 15% of state-specific material.  Florida formally rejected the opportunity to do that in the fall of 2010 just after the appointed State Board of Education adopted them on July 27, 2010 with no explanatory public hearings and while the legislature was not in session. Nothing changed until the minuscule, "copy editing" changes of 98 out of 11,000 or 0.8% were made and adopted in February of this year now to be deceptively called "Florida Standards".

The only problem with this scheme is that it is just more political theater.  Almost the entire grant is expended.  According to the budget documents on the Department of Education website, Florida is in the 3rd quarter of the final year of its Race to the Top grant, with the funding set to run out in June of this year (2014).  If Florida refuses some part of the contract at this point, the federal government is not going to come after money that is already spent.  Pretending to reject these funds will not change the fact that the so called Florida Standards are still 99.2% Common Core and the SB AC writing, psychologically profiling, data mining, controversial issue promoting, AIR organization will still be writing a Common Core test.  

With all of these lies and deceptions going on, stores are going to run out of lipstick for the pig.  Do not accept this!  Please contact the following officials and tell them you see through this smokescreen and that you want real action to take us out of Common Core like pulling out of the Common Core consortium of states, passing HB 25/SB 1316, real data protection that doesn't rely on FERPA, and protection from psychological testing via the assessments:

Governor Rick Scott  (850) 717-9337
Speaker Will Weatherford (850) 717-5038
Senate President Gaetz  (850) 487-5001
Rep. Marlene O'Toole - House K-12 Policy Committee Chairwoman  (850) 717-5033
Rep. Erik Fresen - House Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman  (850) 717-5114
Senator John Legg - Senate Education Committee Chairman  (850) 487-5017
Senator Bill Galvano - Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman  (850) 487-5026

 


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