Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint today shared the news that 132 Catholic professors signed on to a letter last month urging Catholic schools to reject Common Core standards.
132 Catholic professors sent a letter asking Catholic schools to reject Common Core standards http://t.co/IEY45OnV0S
— Jim DeMint (@JimDeMint) November 8, 2013
The professors sent a letter to each Roman Catholic bishop in the country arguing against the standards, which have been adopted by more than 100 dioceses and archdioceses. The letter reads, in part:
News reports each day show that a lively national debate about Common Core is upon us. The early rush to adopt Common Core has been displaced by sober second looks, and widespread regrets. Several states have decided to “pause” implementation.
Others have opted out of the testing consortia associated with Common Core. Prominent educators and political leaders have declared their opposition. The national momentum behind Common Core has, quite simply, stopped. A wave of reform which recently was thought to be inevitable now isn’t. Parents of K- 12 children are leading today’s resistance to the Common Core. A great number of these parents are Catholics whose children attend Catholic schools.
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No diocese (for that matter, no state) is bound to implement these standards just by dint of having signed onto Common Core’s English and math standards. We nonetheless believe that the same financial inducements, political pressure, and misguided reforming zeal that rushed those standards towards acceptance will conspire to make acceptance of the history and science standards equally speedy – and unreflective and unfortunate.
Common Core has been eagerly adopted by public teachers’ unions, so it’s nice to hear American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten claim that the rollout has gone even less smoothly than another high-profile government takeover.
Common Core implementation is ‘worse’ than http://t.co/YWTtUdb75N launch -is anyone listening to educators & parents.http://t.co/jQuFjZl9sx
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) November 8, 2013
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