In a June 13 My View column, Christel Swasey made various allegations against the state school board ("Common Core an assault on liberties" June 13). While I certainly appreciate Swasey's right of free speech, I take exception to both her tone and accuracy.
After more than a year of near-dormancy in the Senate, the rocky process of rewriting No Child Left Behind is getting a new start. On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the retiring chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released a new 1,150-page bill to update the law.
Modern conservatism comes in two distinct architectural styles. The first seeks to build from scratch, using accurate ideological levels and plumb lines, so every wall is straight and every corner squared. The goal of politics is to apply abstract principles in their purest form. But there is another type of conservatism, often practiced at the state level, which attempts to build out of flawed, existing materials, resulting in some odd angles and incongruous additions.
Supporters of the Common Core State Standards are moving to confront increasingly high-profile opposition to the standards at the state and national levels by rallying the private sector and initiating coordinated public relations and advertising campaigns as schools continue implementation.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers reopened the fight over a federal "unit record" system on Thursday, introducing legislation in both chambers of Congress that would link individual student records to wage data in an effort to "empower" prospective college students.
Now, more than ever, Michigan's economic future is closely tied to the education of its workforce. Good paying jobs are increasingly requiring more education and the jobs will go where those educated workers can be found.
In Tennessee, only 16 percent of high school graduates are prepared for college. This is unacceptable. While this is a major concern from an education standpoint, it is even more sobering when I think about the economic future of our state. Without a well-educated workforce, we will not be competitive with other states across our country.
In a discussion with business leaders and others at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event April 16, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said they must step up their political advocacy to defend the Common Core State Standards and other changes to K-12 policy.
Over the next decade, American businesses will need more than 1 million college grads who possess STEM, or science technology, engineering and math skills, said Heather Briccetti, president and CEO of the Business Council of New York State.
The Institute for a Competitive Workforce will hold its annual education and workforce summit on September 17 & 18 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. Details to come.
