The short version is this: Common Core is a federal takeover of American education, probably not a good thing in itself. However, if the Education Establishment had been doing a good job for the last 50 years, we might feel confident they would improve matters. But why would the same people, given much more power, suddenly start doing a good job???

I think they'll continue doing the same bad job or even worse. But the amount of jargon, hype and malarkey will double.

We will be assured, virtually throughout the day, that everything is wonderful in education-land. But millions of kids won't learn to read; millions more won't learn to do arithmetic; and tens of millions won't learn how many ounces are in a pound or where Panama is. But we will be assured that all these kids are capable of critical thinking.

Here is the good news: many states are reconsidering.

For an update, see "Common Core Conspiracy Unraveling??"

This short piece tells eight reasons why Common Core is a bad idea.

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http://www.examiner.com/article/common-core-conspiracy-unraveling-u...

Teacher quote of the month:::::::

"The 'Education Establishment' you speak of has made my work as a dedicated veteran teacher of 12 years 
seem unimportant and trivial. I think they'd be just as happy to have robots standing in front 
of each classroom or a monitor screen with a single instructor for students to view 
since kids are literally expected to problem-solve and teach themselves these days (as your article) suggests.
Very disheartening and frustrating, indeed!"