Here are the answers all wrapped  up in one little tribute to Thomas Jefferson. That's the guy who wanted to educate the little people up as high as they could be educated. We have got to fight for that.

http://www.examiner.com/article/jeb-bush-common-core-and-thomas-jef...

 Full title is "Jeb Bush, Common Core and Thomas Jefferson."

 Here is the money quote: “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large.” (1762) 

 Common Core, sold as raising standards, is actually going to end up reducing outcomes. Why? Because "those entrusted with power" will abuse it if possible. Common Core  is a prescription for abuse at a cosmic level.

Surprisingly to me, Common Core is not even subtle and gentle to start with. It moves in like a bully, makes little kids  have nightmares, makes parents crazy, and at the end of the year the kids  are sick of math, for example. If that's the way Common Core starts the relationship, you can imagine where it's going.

 As Samuel Blumenfeld sums up K-12 education in a recent video: "The smart get dumber; and the dumb get dumber."

  Let this be the slogan of real education reformers: "Illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large."