It feels as though we have reached a critical moment in the fight to reclaim our schools from the billionaires and profiteers. The reformers are fighting back like never before. Where they once dismissed us altogether as a bunch of whiny angry white suburban moms, they now realize we are a force to reckon with. Their PR campaign is in full swing. Their money buys a lot of ink in newspapers and they are well organized. What they do not have is a conscience. They are on the wrong side of the issue and they know it, because their motivation is profit, while ours is the children. The main reason that this year is absolutely critical is that Race To The Top Money runs out at the end of this school year and ESEA (Elementary Secondary School Act) is overdue to be re-authorized. Obama is not likely to have any additional monies approved to be added to the RTTT grant, but congress will quietly approve enough funding to support our schools at the federal level - i.e., nothing of any substance will change until Obama is out of the White House. Whenever we go to the state legislators or people from SED, we are told it is the federal government that is mandating high stakes testing, APPR, and data collection (and that is partly true). However, the state COULD drastically reduce the AMOUNT of state testing but they refuse to do so (Board of Regents and Cuomo are complicit in this as well). My suggestion is to keep up the pressure on your state legislators (both Assembly and Senate, both Democrat and Republican) to compel SED to slow down the implementation of Common Core and all of its required components. I further suggest that we contact our federal legislators (House Representatives and Senators) to do the same. All of the reforms are driven by the Race to the Top program and will not go away until it goes away. Dont let your voices go un-silenced. Speak out, write letters, go visit their offices, let them know what issues are important to you. If they arent hearing from you, they will be listening to those who are quite wealthy and have an agenda that doesnt benefit our children. In solidarity, Tim
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 10:35:38 +0000
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