Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/big-business-takes-on-tea-party-over-common-core-104662.html#ixzz2wCkh1X2n
Tea party activists have been waging war for
months against the Common Core academic standards. Now, in a coordinated show
of muscle, Big Business is fighting back — and notching wins.
The urgent effort stems from a sense among
supporters that this is a make-or-break moment for the Common Core, which is
under siege all over the country.
A coalition including the Business Roundtable
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will launch a national advertising blitz
Sunday targeted at Republicans skeptical about the standards. Spots promoting
the Common Core will air on Fox News and other conservative outlets.
The campaign — a major ad buy that could last
months — aims to undercut dire tea party warnings that the standards amount to
a federal power grab, akin to Obamacare. The TV spots and online ads will
project a positive tone, featuring teachers praising the Common Core.
In a parallel effort unfolding mostly in deep
red states, thousands of small-business owners and corporate executives have
been bombarding state lawmakers with emails, calls and personal visits to press
the point that better standards will mean a better workforce and ultimately, a
better economy. They’ve been joined in some states by military officers who
argue that not just the economy, but national security is at stake.
The strategy: Give conservatives reasons to
support the Common Core — and make clear they will reap dividends if they do.
“We’re telling the legislature that this is
our No. 1 issue,” said Todd Sanders, CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. “We will be watching.”
The tea party might be loud, but the chamber
spends tens of thousands on local campaigns each election year. Sanders wants
lawmakers to remember that. “They are going to have to make a choice in terms
of which constituency is going to be the most important to them,” he said. He
said the chamber will have no qualms about dispensing its political funds to
reward standards supporters, or punish dissenters. “My board is absolutely
unanimous about this,” Sanders said.
The business coalitions, working with allies
from the education community, have scored some key victories in recent weeks.
They blocked a bill that could have torpedoed the Common Core in Georgia. They
derailed a similar bill in Arizona, too, though that fight is not yet over.
They slowed a breakneck drive to get alternative standards approved in Indiana.
And they blocked a bill in Wisconsin that would have empowered the legislature
to shape new standards.
“It feels like there’s a bit of a momentum
shift,” said Cheryl Oldham, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Still, she and others are careful not to
project overconfidence.
Within days, Indiana will very likely become
the first state to officially scrap the standards, though it is far from clear
that they will be replaced with anything too radically different. Bills to
undermine the Common Core are pending in at least a half-dozen other states as
well. Major conservative organizations such as FreedomWorks and Americans for
Prosperity have jumped in to help guide and grow the
grass-roots opposition. And teacher unions, though they still back the
standards in concept, are warning that their implementation has been badly botched.“It’s a critical time,” said Dane Linn, vice president of the Business Roundtable and one of the architects of the Common Core. “State leaders, and the general public, need to understand why employers care about the Common Core.”
The Business Roundtable, he said, is urging
members to work their connections with “governors, committee chairs, House
speakers, presidents of Senates” to stop any bills that could undercut the
standards.
Tea party activists are not intimidated.
On the contrary, they’re convinced the
business community’s tactics will backfire by stoking populist outrage against
the Common Core and its raft of powerful, establishment supporters. “Frankly,
they can rant and rave as much as they want. They’re not going to affect me, and
I don’t think they’re going to affect any others,” Arizona state Sen. Al Melvin
said. “I’m a businessman. But sometimes, these chambers of commerce get it
wrong.”
The Common Core State Standards, meant to guide K-12
instruction in math and language arts, were written by nonprofit education
advocacy groups with input from state associations and funding from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. The Obama administration gave states
substantial incentives to adopt the standards in 2010. Most quickly did, often
with little public debate.Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/big-business-takes-on-tea-party-over-common-core-104662.html#ixzz2wCi4MBZL
Comments
Common Core accelerates the “dumbing down” of
the public school student, but also threatens private schools. Threats and
bribes are Obama’s favorite political weapons. And why not ? He uses money from the Fed, freshly printed
out of thin air. The Chamber of
Communists has been dumbed down as well.
Remember, they supported the Georgia T-SPLOST of July 2012. But, this isn’t over. As Georgia caves in to
a $30 billion bribe, voters are sharpening their “primary sticks”. A brief examination of Common Core will tell
you that this is every bit as bad as the T-SPLOST project list.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party
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