Back in 2009, Secretary of Education Duncan told reporters that a fundamental change for the nation’s education system is on the way. He said the following,
“I want to be able to track every child throughout their educational trajectory, so we know what they are doing. Secondly, I want to track children back to teachers, so we know the impact the teachers are having on those children. And third, I want to be able to track those students back to teacher, and teachers back to the schools of education, so we can understand which schools of education and which feeder programs are producing the teachers that are producing the students that had the most gain.”
It is 2013. We now know that Duncan was referring to the Common Core with related assessments (SBA and PARCC) and the P-20 longitudinal data tracking.
It’s amazing that the American people have never seen President Obama’s college transcript and yet, the administration feels entitled to track every child throughout their “educational trajectory.” Mr. Duncan has it all turned around–WE the PEOPLE are charged with holding our elected officials accountable.
Before we move any further with the Common Core, I propose a fundamental change in the political system.
I want to be able to track every politician throughout their political career so we know what they are doing at any moment of the day. Secondly, I want to track politicians back to their donors, so we know the impact these donors are having on the politicians. And third, I want to be able to track these politicians back to their donors, and donors back to their lobby groups, so we can understand the donors that are producing the lobby groups that are producing the politicians that end up in elected office.
We can call it the “Common Core Political Standard.” Every politician who is FOR the Common Core must FIRST adopt the “Common Core Political Standard.” Aligned with these standards, every politician must take the computer-adaptive Smarter Constitution Assessment and demonstrate adequate yearly progress on the fundamentals of our republic and the United States Constitution. No waivers will be granted; after all, we can have no politician left behind as we raise the standards in politics. If a politician refuses to adopt to the Common Core Political Standard he will be marginalized and called a part of the “lunatic fringe” and primaried by his party in the next election.
This may seem drastic but there is a political crisis in America. Doing nothing is no longer an option. Political standards help ensure their lawmakers have the integrity and knowledge they need to be successful leaders in the 21st Century.
We can start with the members of the National Governors Association and then call it the “state-led” Common Core Political Standard. I’m sure we can get Jeb Bush to pitch it to ALEC too, he’s all about common standards and raising expectations.
There will be a painful adjustment period as politicians adapt to these new standards. It will create a big stink, trust me. But I think that stink is worth having today rather than having America’s dreams unfulfilled for the next generation.
Please forward to every state and federal lawmaker who supports the common core. Together we CAN raise the political standard in America. Yes, WE CAN!