Let them eat Common Core

THANK YOU so much for the article "Failing grades for Common Core." I am the mother of a fifth grader at Sullivan Elementary School in Holyoke, Mass., currently ground zero for Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester's attack on low-income, urban districts. Our almost 80 percent Latino student population is also low income and high need in the areas of English for speakers of other languages, special education and special needs.

Our district suffers a lack of a viable economy (largely caused by the Waltons as they have driven out our local small business economy). The lack of livable wages and high unemployment coupled with unaffordable housing has created a high homeless rate.

I can speak from a personal perspective as part of a family that was displaced multiple times in a 10-year period. My daughter and I came into this district because we were displaced due to an extended period of unemployment from 2008-10. Despite having come into this district via the shelter system, my daughter and I have done nothing but lift the district's report card, as evidenced by my child's excellent grades and almost perfect Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System scores.

I vehemently oppose our federal government dictating how states should run public education and firmly believe No Child Left Behind and Common Core are nothing but the 1 Percent's (not so hidden) agenda to completely break what few democratic rights the working class has left--the right to vote, unions and public education. Having said that, we have not given up and will not back down to defend our constitutional rights to equal and taxpayer-funded and -run public education.

The Department of Education has systemically and chronically underfunded our district, forcing a $4 million budget cut to our education budget, yet ratcheting up the standards every year. The reasons that public schools in poor districts are failing are obvious: classicism and racism. Lack of jobs and affordable housing destabilize any community, cause high transiency, and low income and property values.

The very same three families (the Waltons, the Broads and the Gates) who have destabilized our economy with their failed business models (attempting to break unions and weaken the working class's political power) have bought out our highest elected officials (President Bush, then Obama) with dirty campaign dollars to push their agenda via federal education policy. They have flooded the federal budget with their millions for "education reform" via Race to the Top funds.

So that the working class can have a clear grasp of how states got suckered into accepting No Child Left Behind and now, Common Core State Standards, I would ask that you do an in-depth follow-up regarding the following from your article:

Common Core State Standards are not, in fact, state standards at all. They are national standards written mostly by academics, consultants and assessment experts. The writing of these standards was organized by a private organization (Achieve, Inc.) contracted by non-governmental organizations (the National Governors Association and Council of State School Officers), and funded in large part by the Gates Foundation.

When teachers were brought into the writing process at all, it was largely to revise. Parents weren't included at all.

Because the federal government is prohibited from establishing a national curriculum, states had to be bribed to adopt Common Core. If they wanted a share of money from the Obama administration's Race to the Top funding program--or later, if they wanted a temporary waiver from No Child Left Behind testing requirements--they had to adopt Common Core.

I am also a blogger and would greatly appreciate your support. My blog is titled "Breakin' The AfroLatino Yoke in Western Mass."
Viviana de Jesus, Parents for Public Education, Holyoke, Mass.