To the editor:
I know it sounds almost impossible at first blush, but I want to warn you all that the “Common Core” now being pursued illegally and extra-constitutionally by the extreme liberals that occupy the highest positions in our public school districts is actually communist/fascist in its underlying principles and goals.
Former Reagan education department whistle blower, Charlotte Iserbyt of Dresden has been warning since Reagan signed major initiatives with the Soviets back in the 1980s that this would be what was on the way if we were not careful — lifelong “profiling,” training to the test, the end of classical education, workforce training implemented in our schools by out-of-control corporations as a replacement for a solid base of knowledge for all our students.
“Communist core,” mandated from “educrats” in the District of Corruption, (as bad as it is) is only part of the bigger issue of gradually granting corporations control over our entire public school system through “charter” schools (where we pay the taxes still, but have no elected school boards) and “vouchers” (where even homeschoolers and private schoolers are then forced to follow the “communist core” curriculum.)
You see, for years, traditional education has been ripped from our schools in favor of ludicrous boondoggles like “see and say” reading methods (where the basic necessity of learning what sound each letter makes was outlawed for years), and the fuzzy new math, taught without any real understanding of how children learn and recall, and the non-sequential teaching of sequential subjects like history so that students are unable to connect anything together in their minds. Rote learning was labeled as “insensitive” and “poor for the child’s self esteem.” This intentional dumbing down has been going on for 30 years in our schools. Why? First, you make the public schools look terrible, then you provide the impetus for turning them over to corporate control. It’s called the Hegelian Dialectic.
The Maine Constitution, Article 8 section 1 reads: “the Legislature are authorized, and it shall be their duty to require, the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools …” I don’t read anything in there about the state or feds having the right to determine local curricula, nor do I see anything about giving the power of the purse over to corporations.
I supported LePage when he ran for governor. A week before the election I asked him point blank, face-to-face, if he was in favor of local control of education, and he waxed profusely that he was. His support for charters and not vetoing the illegal and unconstitutional communist core system now belie those words. That still leaves room for him to be the best governor we’ve had since Longley, as he at least understands the value of the dollar, and has done some things to rein in the ultra-liberal superintendents (that see taxpayers as nothing but their private milk cows,) but it also shows haw far we have strayed from our Maine State Constitution. We need to put parents and taxpayers back in charge of local school districts.
You want school improvement? Simple … go back to rote memorization of letters and sounds in kindergarten, and of addition and subtraction facts in first grade. A little honest educational rigor never hurt any child. Being forced to follow a federalized curriculum where you have no choice about your future career, and are forced to specialize as early as seventh grade, harms them all!
Steve Martin,
former school board member
Amity
