Petition to Stop the Implementation of Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) 2013 Presented by Californians United Against Common Core, CUACC.org

We the following parents, grandparents, legal guardians and residents of ____________________ and ________________________School District urge our elected School Board Trustees to refuse to implement CCSSI in our local schools and let teachers have the freedom

to teach what they know to be tried and true methods for learning. We sign this petition opposing CCSSI for the following reasons:

3. Whereas CCSSI was never approved by our local school districts, yet they are now left holding the bag for half of the enormous costs of its implementation.

4. Whereas CCSSI is thus not a State initiative and should not be called such; it was not initiated or written by any State School Boards, nor by any local school board. They had no idea Common Core even existed until it was thrust upon them.

5. Whereas CCSSI is very expensive. It is costing an estimated $16 billion for the entire nation to implement it and somewhere between $400-900 million per individual states. A large populated State like California is expected to pay $1.6 billion. Individual school districts are having to pay half the costs. That is way too much money to pay on something the tax payers and their elected representatives never had any say about and which has not been tested.

6. Whereas the Department of Education Organizational Act of 1979; the General Education Provision Act and the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 that was amended by No Child Left Behind of 2001. Each says about the same thing that “The Federal Department of Education shall not be involved in developing, supervising, or controlling instructional materials or curriculum.” CCSSI and its assessment tests coming in 2014 were partially developed, supervised, and will be controlled under the direction of the Federal Department of Education.

7. Whereas CCSSI was written by a national / international cartel consisting of members of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO); the National Governors’ Association (NGA); and a chief education policy group that is part of the NGA. These groups were joined by members of the Obama Administration; a progressive group called Achieve; the national teacher unions – the FTA, NEA, the College Board and ACT, American College Test. The international influence comes from the Bill Gates Foundation and the Pearson Foundations, a global publishing company based in the UK that has offices in 70 other countries, where Common Core is also being promoted and implemented.

8. Whereas CCSSI is being driven by massive special interest groups and corporations – such as the Gates and Pearson Foundations - who stand to make $billions by the schools having to purchase computers for every student in the classroom and the Pearson publication of e-books instead of text books. The Gates and Pearson Foundations have formed a partnership to do all the training of the teachers in the new learning methods. Of course, the training also costs $millions.

9. Whereas the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was amended by the FDOE in Dec. 2011 to exceed the agency’s statutory authority and thus allows invasive data collecting on both students and teachers. Such things as religious affiliation and political affiliations will now be collected, and who knows what else, nor do we know what will be done with that data. The collection of data on the teachers is making them afraid to speak out against Common Core, even though many do not like it and do not like being told that they can no longer use their old files or teach the tried and proven methods they have always used.

10. Whereas math standards are being lowered. Even though proponents of CC state that Math teachers are beginning to teach algebra in the lower grades, that is just “window dressing.” The real teaching of algebra is being postponed from the 8th grade to the 9th grade, leaving no room for calculus in the senior year. Children are not being asked to memorize math facts. The teaching of geometry is going to be a confusing form that was tried and thrown out of the Soviet Union 50 years ago. Classical English Literature is lowered from 80% to 50% in elementary school and down to 30% in high school. Children will just be learning how to read informational text like a computer manual. Experts on the review committee refused to sign off on the Common Core math and English Literature saying the standards were being lowered.

For more information go to http://www.cuacc.org

Under Comments, Please Enter City, School District, and State so that we may present to the proper authorities. Californians United Against Common Core