Are Fed Up States Finally Dumping Common Core?

Melissa Melton
Activist Post

Out of 45 states that implemented the hideous Common Core State Standards, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a bill last week that officially made his state the first to withdraw:

“I believe our students are best served when decisions about education are made at the state and local level,” said Pence in a release about Senate Bill 91.

“By signing this legislation, Indiana has taken an important step forward in developing academic standards that are written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers, and are uncommonly high, and I commend members of the General Assembly for their support,” he said.

Yesterday, Oklahoma took the first step in potentially following suit, as the state’s Senate passed a bill to repeal Common Core on similar grounds, citing that education standards should be set at the local and state levels instead of being set outside of democratic process by Bill Gates’ money.

Pennsylvania’s House also passed a bill to drop Common Core, and three other states, including Florida, Michigan and Ohio, have also introduced bills to get rid of it.

As New York became the first state to administer statewide Common Core initiative testing this week, some families practiced their own brand of civil disobedience by opting out. Three Brooklyn schools saw as many as 70% of their students refuse to take the state-mandated tests.

Also sitting out were New York Republican Rob Astorino‘s children; Astorino, who is set to challenge challenge Governor Cuomo in November, recently attended an anti-Common Core rally where he described how his kids were stressed out and feeling ill over Common Core testing:

“We don’t want [our kids] to be part of some grand experiment that might be hurting them and not helping them,” Astorino said.

Astorino’s children aren’t the only ones feeling sick and stressed out due to Common Core.

As I previously reported back in December, a group of eight New York principals got together and penned a letter expressing their concerns that the Common Core standardized tests were psychologically damaging the children, causing their 3rd through 8th grade students to cry, throw up and have accidents in their pants:

The group, led by Sharon Fougner, principal of E.M. Baker Elementary School in Great Neck, said that the children have reacted “viscerally” to the tests, The Washington Post first reported.

“We know that many children cried during or after testing, and others vomited or lost control of their bowels or bladders,” the letter reads. “Others simply gave up. One teacher reported that a student kept banging his head on the desk, and wrote, ‘This is too hard,’ and ‘I can’t do this,’ throughout his test booklet.”

The frustration is spreading from schools to homes, as parents across the nation are posting copies of their children’s ridiculous Common Core homework all over social media sites. Here are just a few examples The Daily Caller has reported on:

For something called “Common Core,” common sense seems nowhere to be found in these assignments.

This copy of his kid’s math homework posted by frustrated parent Jeff Severt has now gone viral:

Common Core was able to take this math problem, which was supposed to be a simple subtraction of 316 from 427, and turn it into something even an adult with a college education that included higher mathematics courses couldn’t figure out. Severt wrote:

Don’t feel bad. I have a bachelor of science degree in electronics engineering which included extensive study in differential equations and other higher math applications. Even I cannot explain the Common Core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct. In the real world, simplification is valued over complication. Therefore, 427 – 316 = 111. The answer is solved in under 5 seconds — 111. The process used is ridiculous and would result in termination if used.

Severt is absolutely right.

That’s because some of these Common Core math assignments find inventive (read: insane) ways to take what should be an easy math problem with a straightforward solving process and try to force students to abandon all logic to solve it in a whopping 108 steps instead of the two it actually takes.

For a program that’s supposed to make kids “college ready,” in the real world, taking the time to perform over 100 utterly pointless, ridiculous, time-consuming steps to do something that would normally (and much more simply and efficiently) be completed in just two isn’t exactly considered a desirable trait in a potential job candidate.

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared, and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!