As Bobby Jindal continues to spend taxpayers’ money on
law suits attempting to prevent the implementation of the Common Core Standards
and the tests used to measure mastery of them, he repeatedly advocates
that Louisiana should develop its own standards and assessments. He’s not alone
in this advocacy, for State Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Lake
Charles, who with 17 other legislators just
lost in court in their attempt to stop Common Core implementation, also claims
that abandoning them, “will give us a chance to develop our own standards equal
or higher than what we have today.”
I can’t believe that the
opponents of the standards still keep proposing this in-state development plan
as an alternative to utilizing the Common Core Standards.
So for the last time Mr.
Jindal, Mr. Geymann, and anyone else who believes Louisiana can do a better job
by developing their own standards and assessments, WE DID THIS FOR 20
YEARS! It was known as the Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP)
and it has resulted in our kids still being ranked 48th or 50th in
reading and math skills on the most recent national survey.
Additionally, the just
released ACT scores, a national test of college readiness measuring English,
math, science and reading skills given to both private and public high school
seniors and juniors, show that the state’s average score has dropped yet again, and that only North Carolina, Hawaii and
Mississippi have lower scores.
Where is there one shred
of evidence to support this in-state approach? Louisiana has robbed
generations of children of a good education; one that would allow them to be
competitive no matter where they chose to live in our nation. And that
should be the ultimate standard of a truly good educational system; the
standard which the Common Core Standards seek to address.
You’d think a Rhodes
Scholar, who received one of the finest educations possible (Brown University
and Oxford University), would want that for the children he serves.
Jindal certainly wants that for his own children by enrolling them in
some of the finest schools in our state. And yet, he couldn't care less about
your own children, and he is willing to sacrifice them for a possible slim
chance of a presidential bid.
The sad part about all
this mess is, in reality, Jindal couldn't care less about Common Core, for he has
no core belief systems of his own regarding most issues. Instead he
simply adopts whatever the ultra-conservative power brokers consider media
attention issues at the present time. Five
months ago, it was all about rejecting Medicaid expansion funding under
Obamacare. Now it’s the Core Standards.
How blessed we are to
have such a wonderful governor.
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