The North Central PFRW Regional Conference announced its keynote speaker, Mrs. Peg Luksik. Peg’s topic is ”Common Core: What Does It Mean to My Family?”

Peg is the Founder and Chairman of Founded On Truth, an organization dedicated to rebuilding our culture upon the principles that founded America. She has a long record of helping parents and citizens of the Commonwealth. Peg sat on the founding Boards of the Pennsylvania Family Institute and the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, founded an alternative-to-abortion service organization called Mom’s House, worked as an advisor to President Reagan’s Commission on the Family, and created the National Parents Commission to fight for parental rights in education. She led fight against OBE (Outcome Based Education) in the 90s and now brings her dedication to the fight against Common Core State Standards.

Peg will speak at 12:30 p.m. Morning workshops include “The Vital Role of Women in Civil War Communications” presented by Heather Hibbs, Civil War enthusiast and owner of Treadle Treasures which produces authentic Civil War era clothing; and, Carolyn Conner who will discuss “Energizing Your Ground Game with Social Media”

1. Unconstitutional federal oversight of education

“It is an unconstitutional overreach of the Federal government. Federal control over education has been expanding ever since the 60′s with steadily decreasing student achievement results. The Obama Administration not only has taken control over banking, the automobile industry, and health care…it has now taken over education by the promise of funding and the threat of withholding funding.”1

2. Expanded data mining without privacy protections

“The Department of Education has eviscerated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by issuing new regulations that allow nonconsensual tracking and sharing of this personal data with other federal agencies, with government agencies in other states, and with private entities.”2

“Massive new databases are already being built. In 2012, the Gates Foundation used $17 million to launch inBloom, a company that has built a $100 million database to track students from kindergarten through college. The databases identify students by name, address, and sometimes Social Security number. Per the revised version of FERPA, information collected on students can be shared with third parties such as education product companies.”3

3. Cost of implementation

“CCS adoption is expensive and will add more strain to state budgets already at the breaking point. It is less clear how states will afford to pay for this massive education overhaul.”4

4. Untested Program w/o a Pilot

“This was done with insufficient public dialogue or feedback from experienced educators, no research, no pilot or experimental programs — no evidence at all that a floor-length list created by unnamed people attempting to standardize what’s taught is a good idea.”5

Effects to States

1. Inclusive changes to curriculum as publishers react to economic and social drivers
“Some advocates of Common Core insist that Common Core is ‘not a curriculum’ and that it will promulgate ‘an academic curriculum based on great works of Western civilization and the American republic.’ But the standards are being used to write the tables of contents for all the textbooks used in K-12 math and English classes. This may not technically constitute a curriculum, but it certainly defines what children will be taught, especially when they and their teachers will be judged by performance on national tests that are aligned with these standards.”6

2. Redesigned tests that reflect CCSS (SAT, ACT, GED)
David Coleman, one of the co-authors of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards and now the head of the College Board, which owns the SAT, has said that the exam will be Core-aligned, though when is not known. ACT, the organization that owns the ACT test, is an “active partner” with the Core initiative and says that the exam is already aligned to the standards. Meanwhile, the for-profit corporation owned jointly by Pearson and the American Council on Education that is developing the new GED says it, too, will be aligned to the Core when it is unveiled next year.7

3. One size fits all approach disregarding individual differences prevents school districts from meeting the needs of their students as well as concerns of their communities.

“The best way to produce high academic standards and better student learning is by decentralizing the process of determining standards, curriculum, and assessments. When we have choice and competition among different sets of standards, curricula, and assessments, they tend to improve in quality to better suit student needs and result in better outcomes.”8

4. Imposes federal & state standards on all students of all schools, including private and parochial schools and homeschoolers.

“Common Core eliminates local control over K-12 curriculum in math and English, instead imposing a one-size-fits-all, top-down curriculum that will also apply to private schools and homeschoolers.”9

5. PA Academic Standards / PA Core Standards are based on and include most aspects of Common Core State Standards.

“Pennsylvania’s new academic standards and revised high school graduation requirements are based on the National Common Core Standards.”10

Footnotes:

1 Johnnelle Raines, “Common Core is an Unconstitutional Overreach of the Federal Government,” The Greenville Post, April 4, 2013, http://www.thegreenvillepost.com/2013/04/04/common-core

2 Evidence of a National Education, Utahns Against Common Core, http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/evidence/

3 HSLDA, “Does the Common Core include a national database?” HSLDA, July 23, 2013, https://www.hslda.org/commoncore/topic10.aspx

4 Shannon Younger, “Common Core Standards Could Cost States,” November 15, 2012, statebudgetsolutions.org, http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/common-core-standards-could-costs-states

5 Valerie Strauss, “Eight Problems with Common Core Standards” The Washington Post, August 21, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/eight-problems-with-common-core-standards/2012/08/21/821b300a-e4e7-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_blog.html

6 Joy Pullman, “The Common Core: A Poor Choice for States,” May 2013, http://heartland.org/sites/default/files/05-15-13_common_core_revised_policy_brief_version.pdf

7 Valerie Strauss, “How Common Core Could Affect Every State — Even Those That Reject It”, The Washington Post, July 23, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/07/23/how-common-core-could-affect-every-state-even-those-that-reject-it.

8 Matthew Taborr, “Jay P. Greene to US House: Common Core Will Stifle Reforms,” Education News, October 7, 2011, http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/jay-p-greene-to-us-house-common-core-will-stifle-reforms/#sthash.3TNOqAwn.dpuf

9 Rachel Alexander, “Common Core: What’s Hidden Behind the Language?” Townhall, March 18, 2013, http://townhall.com/columnists/rachelalexander/2013/03/18/common-core-whats-hidden-behind-the-language-n1537017/page/full

10 Mary Robb Jackson, “Pennsylvania Introduces New Academic Standards, Graduation Requirements,” KDKA, September 13, 2013, http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/09/13/pennsylvania-introduces-new-academic-standards-graduation-requirements

Resolution on Common Core State Standards and Assessments

WHEREAS, The Common Core State Standards Initiative (“Common Core”), and its Pennsylvania implementation now known as Pennsylvania Academic Standards, are a set of academic standards, promoted and supported by two private organizations, the National Governor’s Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) as a method for conforming American students to uniform (“one size fits all”) achievement goals to make them more competitive in a global marketplace; and,

WHEREAS, Common Core was financed by funds from private third parties to advocate for and develop the Common Core strategy, subsequently created the Common Core through a process that was not subject to any freedom of information acts or other sunshine laws, and never piloted the Common Core; and,

WHEREAS, Common Core binds us to an established copyright over standards, from which we cannot subtract, replace or add to – beyond an additional 15%; and,

WHEREAS, the NGA and CCSSO in concert with the same corporations developing the Common Core ‘assessments’ have created new textbooks, digital media and other teaching materials aligned to the standards which must be purchased and adopted by local school districts in order that students may effectively compete on Common Core ‘assessments’, and,

WHEREAS, the General Educational Provisions Act  prohibits federal authority over curriculum and testing, yet the U.S. Department of Education’s “Cooperative Agreements” confirm Common Core’s test building and data collection is federally managed;  and,

WHEREAS, Common Core violates state and federal privacy law by requiring the storage and sharing of private student and family data without consent; using a pre- school through post-graduate (P-20) tracking system and a federally-funded State Longitudinal Database (SLDS), creating surveillance capability between states and federal agencies, in accordance with funding mandates;  and,

WHEREAS, the Common Core program includes federally funded testing and the collection and sharing of massive amounts of personal student and teacher data, and  “student behavior indicators” – which include testing for mental health, social and cultural (i.e. religious) habits and attitudes and family status – are now being used for Common Core tests and assessments; and,

WHEREAS, Common Core violates constitutional and statutory prohibitions by pressuring states to adopt the standards with financial incentives tied to President Obama’s Race to the Top, and if not adopted,  penalties including loss of funds; and,

WHEREAS, the federal government is imposing yet another unfunded mandate on our Commonwealth for unproven Common Core instruction, training and testing platforms, without any pledge of financial support from federal, state or local governments; and,

WHEREAS, unproven experiments on our children, lacking empirical data to support them, are removing traditional math, replacing classic literature with increased technical reading, and prohibiting teachers from reviewing the tests to know what they ought to be teaching; and,

WHEREAS, this top-down process and the principles behind Common Core undermine the teacher’s role and do not support American ideals of local control, parental choice in education, standards and testing; and,

WHEREAS, Common Core effectively removes educational choice and competition since all schools and all districts must use Common Core ‘assessments’ based on the Common Core standards to allow all students to advance in the school system and to advance to higher education pursuits;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we call on Governor Corbett and the Pennsylvania Department of Education to withdraw from and cease implementation of Common Core Standards / Pennsylvania Academic Standards; and we ask the Pennsylvania Legislature to discontinue funding programs in association with The Common Core State Standards Initiative/Pennsylvania Academic Standards.

Passed unanimously on August 1, 2013 by SUN Area Council of Republican Women.

SUNACRW is a strong supporter of the U.S. military.  In addition to the care packages we have provided to deployed men and women from the SUN area we have begun to work with Operation Expiration to assist military families stationed overseas.

Military families stationed around the world are faced with the economic reality that their dollars do not have the same buying power that they have stateside.  This can be quite a shock for a family that moved to be with the military spouse.  Imagine if you walked into the base PX only to find that your U.S dollar now has only 65₵ buying power.  You would be in shock and your budget would tighten quickly.  However, there is a way to help our troops and their dependents that is easy and inexpensive.

PXs on foreign bases allow manufacturer’s coupons to be used up to 6 months after their printed expiration date.  Together with Operation Expiration the women of the SUN area are providing unused coupons to military families around the world.  The process is simple.

1. Cut all manufacturers coupons from your magazines and papers.  Do not include store coupons or internet coupons.  Make sure the bar code is intact.
2. Include coupons that are current or up to one month past expiration date.  Discard all others.
3. Sort coupons into food and non-food categories.
4. Place into zip-type sandwich or quart storage bags and write the category on the outside.

SUNACRW sends coupons to Operation Expiration regularly.  If you would like to support our military families through this effort, please email us at sunacrw@gmail.com and we will provide you with contact information for our coupon coordinator.