Freedom Friday Vol. 1

*Edited to add:  Oh my, I have been up too many late nights reading about Common Core!  I apologize, I thought today was Friday!*

The purpose of Freedom Fridays is to give the public a voice about Common Core.  Every other Friday I will post a letter that you can send to your senators, representatives, school board members, etc.  I believe that the reason that most people don't speak up is because they don't know what to say or how to convey their feelings about it.  Freedom Fridays will give you that voice!

Please stop back when you receive responses to your letters.  I would love to hear them!

United we stand,
Jennifer

FREEDOM FRIDAY-- VOLUME ONE

Dear Senator:

In this letter I wish to address the cost of implementing Common Core Standards in our state.

I guess I should start with the main question first: What is Common Core?

Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSI) is a privately funded, federally pushed reformation of public education, and education in general.  The name is a bit misleading because the public of America via state legislation did not get to vote on Common Core.  (But that is a topic for another letter.)   These standards are purported to be ‘rigorous’ and ‘prepare children for college and career readiness.’  What could be better than the academic improvement of our floundering schools?  However, with CCSI comes a hefty price tag:

• ·         Over a seven year period, costs are projected at $15.8 billion across participating states for Common Core’s implementation.
• ·         Additional expenses to implementation are: $1.2 billion for the new assessments, $5.3 billion for professional development, $2.5 billion for textbooks and instructional materials, and $6.9 billion for technology infrastructure and support.
• ·         Annual operations costs are estimated at $801,493,256.
• ·         “We project that the annual cost of assessment for states participating in the consortia will increase by a total of $177.2 million each year.  These are not one-time costs (which are covered by the federal grants to the consortia), but ongoing operational costs that will be faced each year.”
• ·         Professional development cost examples per state:  California-- $2,000 per teacher, Washington -- $3,087 per teacher, Texas (which since the writing of this report has rejected CCSI)-- $1,681 per teacher.
• ·         “We project that states adopting Common Core will need to spend approximately $2.47 billion in one-time costs to obtain aligned English language arts and mathematics instructional materials.”

{All figures and quotes were excerpted from “National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards” Vol. No. 82, Feb. 2012, published by the Pioneer Institute Public Policy Research}

My question, as a taxpayer, is this:  Where is all this extra money going to come from?  The initial start-up costs will be covered by the grants so generously provided by the Obama Administration, but after that where will ongoing funding come from?  Our school districts are already struggling to meet fiscal goals and many have had to utilize “budget cut days” to stay in the black.  How can we possibly afford to implement a bloated program such as Common Core on our meager state revenue?

Please stop the implementation of Common Core in our state.  We simply can’t afford it.