Friday, 01 November 2013 17:45
Common Core: People vs. Big Government, Big Business, and Billionaires
Written by Alex Newman

With recent public hearings on national Common Core education standards by Wisconsin lawmakers in October, another element of the national battle is becoming increasingly obvious: This has become a fight largely between concerned citizens and parents on one side, with Big Business, Big Government, and a cadre of establishment billionaires like Bill Gates on the other. This week, efforts of pro-Common Core forces to demonize the grassroots opposition — which transcends the traditional political spectrum — reached the point of absurdity. Citizens and even lawmakers, though, are now hitting back at bizarre and inaccurate allegations made in an apparent effort to dismiss public concerns about the nationalized standards.

Supporters of Common Core who testified at the Wisconsin hearings were, for the most part at least, paid by taxpayers through government education bureaucracies. Those state and local agencies, of course, received taxpayer-funded bribes from the Obama administration to adopt the controversial standards in the first place. Other Common Core backers have been receiving funds from big businesses hoping to profit at taxpayer expense, or grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — the key financier behind the whole education “reform” agenda, in addition to its support for abortion giant Planned Parenthood, the United Nations, population control, and other controversial causes.

On the other side of the debate were everyday Wisconsinites — moms, dads, grandparents, educators, liberal and conservative activists, taxpayers, and more. In an effort to counter the one-sided testimony from well-funded Common Core proponents, citizens across Wisconsin came together to help raise money and bring in experts to testify against the standards. Passing around a hat at meetings, the grassroots activists and concerned parents worked hard to gather small- and medium-sized donations simply to help reimburse some of the nation’s top authorities on Common Core for their travel expenses — flights, hotel stays, and a few meals; nothing more.

Instead of recognizing the concerns and applauding the people of Wisconsin for working together to benefit their children, however, some lawmakers concocted wild conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods in an effort to smear opponents. In a “resignation letter” to the state committee investigating Common Core, Democrat State Rep. Christine Sinicki claimed the legislative hearings were “primarily a roadshow” done in conjunction with the Republican National Committee “to distract from that party’s recent national failures.”

Claiming that the criticisms of Common Core in Wisconsin “echo the extreme statements coming out of the RNC,” she alleged that the “extremism” about the standards seemed to emanate from the “Tea Party wing” of the GOP. It was not immediately clear how state Rep. Sinicki could claim to know that, since she barely heard 10 percent of the testimony and failed to show up for three out of four hearings. However, if she had paid more attention, she would almost certainly be aware of the fact that countless teachers, progressives, and educators oppose the standards just as firmly as conservatives.

One of the most remarkable elements of the opposition, in fact, is how it spans across the entire political spectrum and obliterates traditional partisan divides. “Never have I found myself finding so much common ground with people who call themselves conservative and libertarians — we all agreed public schools were going to be ruined by this,” Dr. Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University and co-founder of a fast-growing teachers’ alliance opposed to Common Core, told The New American. “This really represents the worst fantasies of both the right and left coming true: Big Government and Big Corporations imposing this terrible, untested, expensive plan using intimidation and bullying.”
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More and links at:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/ed...ss-billionaires