South Carolina votes on Common Core replacement
The South Carolina Board of Education adopted standards in English/language arts and mathematics to replace the Common Core State Standards at its March 11 meeting.
Last year, Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, signed legislation that required the state to develop new standards for the 2015-16 academic year. The common core has remained in place in the Palmetto State’s public schools this school year. A team of South Carolina teachers and others have developed the replacement standards over the past year, and the state’s independent Education Oversight Committee approved a draft version of the standards on March 9. The state board had final say over whether to adopt the standards.
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Noting how the state education department gave the public an avenue on its website to provide feedback about the proposed standards, Julie Fowler, a state deputy superintendent for college and career readiness, told board members, “We have been so transparent in this entire process.”
Many states have adopted the controversial education standards amid criticisms and comparisons to socialized education programs. New York experienced major problems, Louisiana withdrew after much debate and many other states have followed as critics call it “too communist.”
One in fact, Lily Tang Williams, a mother of three, testified before the Colorado State Board of Education that Common Core was similar to the education she received growing up in Mao’s Communist China.
“Common Core, in my eyes, is the same as the Communist core I once saw in China,” Williams said. “I grew up under Mao’s regime and we had the Communist-dominated education — nationalized testing, nationalized curriculum, and nationalized indoctrination.”
n a post at FreedomWorks, Williams wrote about her experience with the Chinese education system:
Our teachers had to comply with all the curriculum and testing requirements, or lose their jobs forever. Parents had no choice at all when it came to what we learned in school. The government used the Household Registration and Personnel File system to keep track of its citizens from birth to death.
“I came to this country for freedom and I cannot believe this is happening all over again in this country,” she said in the meeting. “I don’t know what happened to America, the Shining City on the Hill for freedom.”
She said Americans should not compare their children (or their kids’ test scores) to those being educated under the Chinese system.
“I am telling you, Chinese children are not trained to be independent thinkers,” said Williams. “They are trained to be massive skilled workers for corporations. And they have no idea what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 where government ordered soldiers to shoot its own 1,000 students.”
More on the new standards in South Carolina here
Some Common Core driven questions from Mississippi which upset parents
Lots of money back Common Core to get the standards in school, but now the standards are being call into question
