Legislators heard two and a half hours of public testimonies at last night’s Stop Common Core meeting at the Utah State Capitol Building which packed the Hall of Governors to overflowing.
Legislators claimed the first few rows of seats, and at least 500 people filled every chair while many people had to stand along the walls. The crowd and the legislators listened to two and a half hours of testimonies from teachers, parents and students.
Hundreds who wanted to speak out against Common Core were prevented by time. (Their written or filmed testimonies will be uploaded later at Utahns Against Common Core.)
Highlights:
— Teenage students speaking out against Common Core.
— Teachers, both current and retired, speaking out against Common Core.
— A licensed child psychologist speaking out against Common Core.
— Three (out of the seven members) of the Alpine School Board, Utah’s largest school district, each speaking out against Common Core, especially noting concerns about the common core-aligned standardized testing which ends liberty and local control.
— A legislator who rose to the enthusiastically cheering crowd and said, “We hear you. And we are going to work.”
The event was filmed and will be viewable soon. It was also covered by Channel 4 and by the Deseret News.
COMMON CORE 
I don’t understand how our liberty and local control is lost, as our district and state has always let us modify the core to match state/community values.
LClark, thank you for your comment. Liberty and local control are lost because 1) the federal government has placed a 15% cap on modifying the Common Core. 2) The Common Core is copyrighted by two unelected D.C. groups who are not accountable to the public, so future changes to the standards are outside voter or state school board control. 3) Any district or state that modifies the Common Core standards beyond the “permitted” 15% will put itself at a disadvantage because the Common Core aligned national tests will not take such modifications into account; teachers and principals who are to be punished or rewarded and “redistributed” according to Common Core student test scores, will not find any freedom to teach beyond it. 4) A monopoly of thought that presses the whole nation into alignment with Common Core is dramatically reducing the availability of curriculum that is not strictly based on Common Core, because the largest education sales company in the world (Pearson) and the (2nd) richest man in the world, Bill Gates, are partnering to, in Gates’ own words, create and align curriculum, tests, and standards to a “uniform customer base.” The way I see it, if we don’t fight Common Core, innovation and diversity in education will become anachronistic in America. 5) The ACT, SAT, GED and AP tests are now aligning to Common Core, despite the fact that in many areas, this represents a dumbing down of college expectations (calculus, classic literature, etc.) This is happening in part because David Coleman, lead architect of ELA Common Core, is also the President of the College Board.
The other aspect that LClark may not be seeing may be hidden in the State’s ESEA Flexibility document. Wow, that is the document that ties it all together. That is where you will read about Federal funding, teacher evaluations, and other matters being tied to the test scores. It is the “One Ring to rule them all” document. … if I remember my Tolkien. I am feeling very much like a Hobbit tonight with several state ESEA Flexibility documents on my desk. Sadly, I don’t have Utah’s handy, but I would read it if I were you. Astericks and Oblisks…. I am there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg-HNYCJQ1U