Former NC General Assembly member and board member of NC Schools Public Forum went on NCSPIN and talked about Common Core. What we heard was the same talking points coming out of the NC Chamber. In fact, Arnold would go on to say the Chamber will use political donations as a threat in order to force keeping Common Core. Keep reading, we’ll get to the clips from the show.

This set of  pro-Common Core talking points used by Arnold is unsurprising for a few reasons. For one thing, Arnold is a board member of Public School Forum NC, which is partnered with the NC Chamber of Commerce. Another reason being that Chambers of Commerce and Business groups in multiple states all bought the Common Core sales job.

The NC Chamber’s Education Foundation has just such an initiative called “Hire Standards“. The NC Chamber’s Education Foundation  is a 501(c)(3) according to their site and 990 forms.  The Education Foundation received $25,000 from the NC Chamber in 2012 according to their Schedule 1 in their 990 tax filing. 2013 is not available yet, but a good guess is the amount is larger. Make no mistake, “Hire Standards” is a who’s who of pro-Common Core, including the owners of the copyrighted standards, The CCSSO — of which State Superintendent Atkinson is now President-elect. Conflict of interest anyone?

Read More about “Hire Standards”: 

• A Blitz Of Influence And Money In NC Education

Parents and citizens should push back. Call your representation at the NC General Assembly and tell them to support  HB1061, “Replace Common Core To Meet NC’s Needs”.

Returning to Gene Arnold on NCSPIN

Conversation about Common Core on the May 15th edition of NCSPIN began at the 9:40 mark.  Arnold started out by referencing the now debunked Fordham Institute’s Grading report as proof that NC needs Common Core. Arnold admits that Fordham graded our Math and Science as B+toA-, meaning our standards were just as good if not better.  Then Arnold pushes the Fordham’s “D” ranking in other subjects like English Language Arts.

Parents who are familiar with Common Core know the facts about the ELA portion. It’s age/developmentally inappropriate. This developmental inappropriateness is especially true in the K-3, where children are being asked to do tasks meant for children 2-3 grades beyond them. Parents have watched their Kindergartener  be asked to write opinion pieces before they can actually read or write their own name with proficiency and their First grader burst into tears while attempting to do math in the overly convoluted ‘Common Core’ way. The increased substitution of “informational texts” versus classic literature are the opposite of what research shows is effect.

Read about the debunking of the Gates funded Fordham Grading Report:

• Fordham Grading Report Being Trounced By States
• Fordham Rep: “Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Tennessee have better standards than CC.”
• Fordham’s State Letter Grades Questioned
• Fordham Spox: NC Standards Pre-Common Core Sucked

Arnold also makes the bizarre claim that opposition have been running ads against it. I’d love for him to show me one, because right now the only ads being run are Pro-Common Core and are funded by the Chamber of Commerce. He also claims there is increasing support. This is the opposite of what their own polling is telling them. The majority of citizens do not know about Common Core still and those that are finding out about dislike it more and more as time passes. The Chamber’s objective it so get to those citizens first and lay down the propaganda.

Later at the 24:27 mark, Arnold outright says businesses are forming “coalitions” to push Common Core. Does this mean that donations made to their PAC go to advance Common Core? Thanks for clearing up for the record  that the Chamber and businesses are seeking to pressure elected officials and circumvent the will of parents and taxpayers on Common Core, Mr. Arnold. Here is the direct quote:

“The big stick the business people are using is the threat with campaign contributions could slow down.” – Gene Arnold, NCSPIN 5/15/14

Full Episode: