This week Alisa and I spoke in Star Valley, Wyoming at the Afton Civic Center. The event was filmed and I’ll post it when receive it.
What I learned:
Wyoming is in great shape to reclaim educational liberty and control. I’m almost jealous of the state’s position. Why?
1) Wyoming could walk away from the temptation of federal monies easily because it has strong education funding through state royalties.
“Each biennium, Wyoming gets about $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in federal mineral royalty payments (FMRs), which account for a sizable portion of the state’s entire two-year $8.9 billion budget. More FMRs flow to Wyoming than any other state, largely because of extensive coal mining on federal land” – WyoFile.
2) Wyoming only recently (1 year ago) formally adopted Common Core. The amount of wasted money, time, teacher development and other Common Core-related waste that is happening in other states, has not happened there yet. It will be so easy to cut bait and walk away, because there’s not a lot of bait to cut.
3) Wyoming has an enviable state school board.
The Wyoming state school board only voted 8 to 4 to adopt Common Core. That means that a good chunk of the school board was opposed to it from day one. Enviable! (In supposedly conservative Utah each of the board members adore the Obama-pushed Common Core.)
Perhaps best of all, the Wyoming state superintendent, Cindy Hill, really gets it– she fights for local control of educational quality and liberty. She recently gave a speech to her state legislature about the foolishness of being federal-compliance-focused rather than having a “laser-like focus” on academic excellence.
Hill had refused to throw her state under the national testing bus and was severely punished for her wisdom. She was recently pushed aside and relieved of virtually all her powers and duties except for ceremonial and paperwork duties, because she opposed the federal-compliance mentality of the majority of the Wyoming School Board. Hill’s powers were reassigned –not by a vote, but by an appointment– to the new position: Director of Education, one who would dance the dance of federal compliance more cheerfully.
But Wyoming citizens rose up in protest, getting thousands and thousands of citizens to sign a petition to vote on the issue and to get Cindy Hill reinstated with her full powers.
4) Wyoming has strong, devoted people who value local control and are not willing to give it away.
Wyoming, we love you. Go, Fight, Win!
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Sign the Wyoming Petition to STOP COMMON CORE here.
COMMON CORE 
You can best believe the federal government will be shutting down those coal mines in Wyoming if they try to pull out of Common Core. If I were the Governor of Wyoming I would demanding every piece of land owned by the federal government to be returned to its rightful owner…..the citizens of Wyoming. ND is also financial well positioned to pull out of Common Core because of their State Bank. They are the only state in the US that has a State Bank. This is also why they are the #1 state when it comes to their economic stability. They are looking for ways to get out of federal funding for education and to stand on their own. I think EVERY state needs to bite the bullet and do the same thing. Tell the federal government to STAND DOWN and get out of the way.
However, we cannot be complacent that we are in a better postion than some states. Unfortunately, our Governor is a chairperson for the National Governers Association, which is a paid lobbysist organiztion that lead the push for CC under the “state-led” guise. He also pushed through SF104 to replace our Public Director of Instructionan Cindy Hill with an appointed postion through Jim Rose! I spoke with Governer Mead at a our countiy’s Captiol for the Day Ice Cream Social, and he disagrees with my concern that CC takes away local control. He attempted to explain to me that our standards are being raised with Common Core. It was apparent he knows nothing but what he has been told by the very creators of the Common Core Standards Initiative
I want to thank you, Alisa, and Renee for all of the work you do towards this effort! It was in part because of your efforts that changed my view as a teacher that was originally excited to use the common core. Thanks again for coming to Wyoming! We will beat this! http://wyomingagainstcommoncore.wordpress.com/about/
Reblogged this on Wyoming Against the Common Core and commented:
Great things happening in Wyoming with the Common Core Trio’s presentation in Star Valley! However, we cannot be complacent that we are in a better position than some states. Unfortunately, our Governor is a chairperson for the National Governors Association, which is a paid lobbyist organization that lead the push for CC under the “state-led” guise. He also pushed through SF104 to replace our Public Director of Instruction Cindy Hill with an appointed position through Jim Rose! I spoke with Governor Mead at a our county’s Capitol for the Day Ice Cream Social, and he disagrees with my concern that CC takes away local control. He attempted to explain to me that our standards are being raised with Common Core. It was apparent he knows nothing but what he has been told by the very creators of the Common Core Standards Initiative. We did not receive enough signatures to repeal SF104! We need to keep standing against this!
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So happy that there are people in WY working hard to stop Common Core, sign me up, I want to help!
I first believed that something was wrong when units in school that everyone looked forward to, that engaged students(dinosaurs is an example), were being discontinued to focus only on the domains of LA and Math.
Study of the first grade standards in math-about how students should comprehend abstract concepts(is Piaget’s theory no longer relevant?) prompted further study into how these standards have been pushed onto states, we have been manipulated and lied to about this!
Federally controlled schools are not right for WY, our students and families deserve local influence for a quality education!
Linda! Thank you for your comments! There is a facebook group that puts a lot of information together and organizes activities. We would LOVE to have you contribute. https://www.facebook.com/groups/stopccinwy/ We also can be found on FreedomWorks website, and at http://wyomingfreedomineducation.org
I saw this quote from the Star Tribune this morning so I had to write my two cents below: “Former Arizona state Sen. Richard Crandall, who started as Wyoming Department of Education director on Monday, said the across-the-board decrease in proficiency rates indicates there’s more work to be done to transition to the new Common Core standards, which administrators say are more challenging than Wyoming’s former content standards.”
That is not what I heard from Jon Lever the NCSD Assessment Data Coordinator on the news this morning in which he said, “Data Analysis and Probability this spring was tested in the 4th grade, because that’s where it had, in previous standards been taught. However in the Common Core standards it’s not taught until the 7th or 8th grade”
So we are essentially degrading our educational standards by 3-4 years, and the tests haven’t regressed to the new standards. I am upset with Matt Mead, for signing on to this Federal curriculum takeover, in exchange for some federal funding. Then how he wanted to usurp the Wyoming Constitution by trying to toss Hill out of office because she didn’t want to sign off on Common Core. I am especially pissed after seeing my daughters test scores take a nose dive for the first time (after being in the fully integrated Common Core Math class).
I believe in the States Constitutional power to handle their education the way they want. I disagree with loosing our educational sovereignty to the Federal Government, especially at the cost of our children and their future. And to all of the Liberals out there that opposed the No Child Left Behind Program instituted by Bush. Where are you now??? Because this Common Core Program is much, much, worse. And look into the Data Mining that comes along with the Common Core on the teachers, parents, and students (which includes religion, voting history, and a host of other personal data points).
So now that D C and some other
places got RTTT $, AKA race to
the top money, have its ACT scores
shot up.
Utah spends per capita less than
1/2 per capita on students( K1- k12)
What Wyoming spends, yet UTAH has
higher ACT scores.
Is RTTT a hoax to leave no crony
consultants behind ?