This is to alert you that the Obama Administration has moved full-speed ahead to pressure state boards of education to fully commit to its Common Core standards ahead of the November 2012 election.  The latest example is to offer state waivers to the NCLB ‘s accountability requirements.   Our Alabama Board of Education will vote on whether to apply for a NCLB waiver this Thursday, August 30.  

There’s little disagreement that the accountability requirements for NCLB were misconceived and changes must be made.  But changes to the NCLB must be made by Congress, which is currently considering options since NCLB is up for reauthorization, for these waivers to be constitutional.  President Obama saw an opportunity for the federal government to take complete control of education and asked Congress to make his education reform initiative (Common Core) as part of the reauthorization.  Congress refused, so President Obama has end-run Congress to coerce states to adopt Common Core in its entirety. 

For our members who are new since AFRW made opposing Common Core a top education priority in 2010, here is a brief background: 

          NCLB (No Child Left Behind) amended the Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965 (ESEA), created by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.  While today, the U. S. Department of Education, created in 1979, authorizes funding for key portions of school district budgets (aid for disadvantaged students or Title I), past Administrations have generally adhered to statutory limitations that ban the federal government from “directing, supervising, or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instructions, and instructional materials” AND protects state prerogatives on Title I content and achievement standards.  This “hands off” local education policy changed with the Obama Administration in 2009. 

          The Road to a National Curriculum:  The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards confirms that under the Obama Administration, the USDOE has ignored statutory limitations and “created a system of discretionary grants and waivers that herds state education authorities into accepting elementary and secondary school standards and assessments favored by the Department …. Left unchallenged, standards and assessments will ultimately direct the course of elementary and secondary study … running the risk that states will become little more than administrative agents for a nationalized K-12 program of instruction ….” 

          This report was released in February 2012 by the Pioneer Institute, the Federalist Society and others.  Its co-authors conclude that the NCLB Waiver Plan will ensure that states receiving waivers will remain forever committed to the standards, assessments, curriculum, program, and instructional changes of Common Core.  The report also warns of the “heavy investment” in tax dollars that will be required.  This must be a concern of our Alabama Legislature which must approve all education funding — especially in a time of a severe budget crisis.

          Some Board members tell us that their actions relating to adopting Common Core does not commit Alabama to Obama’s education reform initiative.  Education experts disagree.  The above white paper states:  “Indeed, to obtain a waiver, states must adopt and implement common standards and assessments.”  By accepting a waiver and the USDOE conditions, “states will be bound indefinitely to the Common Core standards, PARCC-SBAC assessments, and the curriculum and instructional modules that arise from those assessments …. These efforts will necessarily result in a de facto national curriculum and instructional materials effectively supervised, directed, or controlled by the Department through the NCLB waiver process.”

Wait until you see the content of textbooks currently under consideration by Alabama’s textbook adoption committee which align with Common Core.   As soon as I dispense of this task, I will address that issue.  I think I can safely predict that you and every conservative parent and taxpayer will be incensed!  A vote by the textbook committee will be taken September 6 and a vote by the board on September 10. 

Unfortunately, the action by the Alabama Board of Education to consider applying for a NCLB waiver has not been widely advertised in forums to reach parents and grassroots organizations like ours.  Therefore, a robust public debate over the merits has been avoided.  Fortunately, AFRW learned of this vote this Thursday quite by accident, but we have done what we could in this small window of time to respond and get our opposition on the record.  The attached letter will be sent and distributed as noted in the letter.

Thanks so much!
Elois Zeanah
President, Alabama Federation of Republican Women

Pioneer Report on National Standards Leading to Federal Control

AFRW Letter to Gov. Bentley re Textbook Adoption

Letter from AFRW President Elois Zeanah on Common Core Standards
National Common Core Standards & Leftist Propaganda in Public Schools
AFRW Resolution to Defeat National Standards for State Schools
Reasons to Defeat National Standards by AFRW President Elois Zeanah
What Is Common Core? by Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute