Tea Party Leader Says Common Core Can Revitalize Movement

Bruce Ackerman / Ocala Star-Banner/Landov

Tea Party members, Lois Miller, right, and Charlie Batchelder, left, hold signs to protest Common Core across the street from Marion Technical Institute where school administrators were meeting on Southeast Fort King Street in Ocala, Fla. on Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

Tea party groups see opposition to Common Core standards as the issue to revitalize a political movement which failed to defeat Democratic President Barack Obama in last year’s election and lost a court challenge to Obama’s health care law.

Here’s the quote, from The Washington Post:

“This is the issue that could change things for the tea party movement,” said Lee Ann Burkholder, founder of the 9/12 Patriots in York, Pa., which drew 400 people — more than twice the usual turnout — to a recent meeting to discuss agitating against Common Core.

The standards have been fully adopted by Florida, 44 other states and the District of Columbia. Common Core lays out what students are expected to know in math and English language arts by the end of each grade.

The standards streamline the number of topics schools teach children in each subject. Common Core also requires teachers ask students what they know and to prove how they know it.

Though Florida led the charge against the health care law, state Republicans, Democrats and the teacher’s union support the standards. Former Gov. Jeb Bush is a leading national advocate.

Other states are leading the way in opposing Common Core. Our colleagues in Indiana have covered that story extensively.

Meanwhile, the debate over the Common Core is emerging from education-focused sources and into broader conversation.

Massachusetts-based think tank The Pioneer Institute laid out a case against the new standards in the Wall Street Journal this week. Folks at the pro-Core Fordham Institute responded in a point-by-point rebuttal.