No matter how they try to rebrand and sell the questionable Common Core education standards to Americans, the secret is out about the socialized education initiative being pushed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a slew of others looking to benefit from a national education curriculum.
Alex Leary of the Tampa Bay Times must have been reading my mind about writing a story about Jeb Bush and Common Core, as he just posted an interesting story, which outlines the fact that the Bush Foundation for Excellence in Education ” has collected millions of dollars from pro-Common Core organizations — from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the for-profit education giant Pearson.”Michelle Malkin said it best,”When it comes to Common Core peddlers like @JebBush et al: Don’t read their lips. Follow the money.”
Nothing in politics is done out of the kindness of anyone’s heart. Whenever you see a elected official or politico pushing any kind of agenda, whether it’s education, immigration, welfare, or whatever, know that they are only doing to expand their base of support for a future re-election, run for higher office, or simply line their pockets with dinero.
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
That my friends is the dirty truth.
And what do you think the pro-Common Core lobby is saying about the accusations made against Common Core and the special interests looking to make a quick buck off education?
Pearson landed a lucrative contract with a consortium developing tests aligned with Common Core. Amplify last year won a $12.5 million contract from another Common Core consortium. It also has developed a tablet that comes with Common Core-aligned material.The potential market for all the new materials required by Common Core is as much as $8 billion, according to the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which has partnered with the Bush foundation to promote the standards.
Other foundation backers with an interest in Common Core include publishers McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Microsoft, another foundation sponsor, in March announced a partnership with Pearson to develop Common Core material.The companies say there is no relationship between their support of the foundation and their business interests, other than a mutual support of quality education.
“We support high standards, everyone does,” said Pearson spokeswoman Stacy Skelly, adding that Pearson supports a range of education foundations.
Surrrreeee.
The Common Core debate is even influencing the 2014 mid term elections, as candidates at both the state and federal levels are campaigning against the standards and testing.Take for example the Republican primary race in Florida’s 9th congressional district. The frontrunner in the race, Navy veteran Jorge Bonilla, who was just endorsed by Congressman Tom Rooney and has also garnered unprecedented support from the anti-Common Core lobby for his stance against standardized education and testing, recently said that if elected to office, he would sponsor legislation to defund Common Core.
Bonilla’s opponent, Carol Platt, who is supported by Jeb Bush, and is a long-time friend and political supporter of the former governor, recently echoed the pro-Common Core lobby defense that education standards detractors are putting out “misinformation” about the initiative.
When asked to clarify her position on Common Core, Platt did not say she was against the standards, rather responding to the question by saying that “education is ”not where it needs to be,” and that “there are some good aspects of it,” and that there needed to be improvements to it, adding that there was “misinformation” about Common Core circulating around.
Other Florida politicos, like state Representative Debbie Mayfield (R), have filed legislation to rid Florida of Common Core.
Senator Marco Rubio has also expressed that he is fully against nationalized education and standards testing, putting him at odds with his long-time political friend and mentor, Jeb Bush.Looking ahead to the 2016 Republican presidential primary race, that could pit Rubio against Bush, Jeb will have a hard go at it with the conservative base, which is firmly against him on immigration reform and Common Core.
