Friday, March 8, 2013

CCSS Partner: The Lumina Foundation

The Lumina Foundation is a Partner of the National Governor's Association and the National Council of State Legislators, Achieve and the Council of Chief State School Officers who have been pushing for the implementation of the CCSS.  Including our own Senator Rich Crandall and Rep. Goodale.  They also donate millions to leftist groups such as Soros' Tides Foundation, New America Foundation, The Brookings Institute, The Center for American Progress, and the Aspen Institute.

Arizona is a recipient of grants from the Lumina Foundation.
Phoenix College | Phoenix, AZ
$600,000 to support efforts by phoenix college to increase the number of latino students earning high quality postsecondary degrees and credentials by strengthening seamless pathways to college and tracking educational and career success of high need youth in the greater phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona.  
 
University of Arizona Office of Community Relations
$280,250 to support participation of higher education institutions in southern arizona in an oecd-organized initiative.  This grant will allow personnel from higher education institutions, government, business and community-based organizations to come together to identify opportunities for productive partnerships and to understand how to develop and assess the effectiveness of those partnerships that will result in a regional action plan for moving the work forward.  7/1/09 - 6/30/11 (Coincidentally, Dr. McCallum, a professor from the UofA was working on creating the Math portion of the Common Core Curriculum during this same time.)
 
The third annual Grad Nation Summit was held at the end of February.  Grad Nation was formed after Obama announced his National Equity Goal of attaining a 90% graduation rate by 2020 in order to "significantly reduce the achievement gap for all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, disability, language, sex, and socioeconomic status." In attendance was the VP of Strategic Impact for the Lumina Foundation, Dr. James Applegate.  Dr. Applegate made statements such as:

"A 1980 a college graduate earned 40% more over a lifetime than a high school graduate....the current rate will be about 100% by 2025.  Now, that might be great for the few, the wealthy, and the S.A.T. gifted who get to GO to college and GET that 100% premium..."
 
"We do a darn good job educating the wealthy people....."
 
"There is a class-based denial of opportunity."
 
The reality: Common Core Standards has nothing to do with implementing "rigorous" standards and everything to do with class warfare.


 
 
 
 
 
 
So, about those "rigorous" standards....
 
How does a country attain Obama's goal of a 90% graduation rate by 2020 without lowering the bar through the elimination of half of the material and slowing the pace that it is taught?
 
How is waiting until 9th grade to teach algebra instead of 7th or 8th considered "rigorous?"
 
According to the Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, there are currently 1500 failing schools in the U.S. out of a total of 100,000. It is anticipated that by 2020, there will be approximately 1000 failing schools.
 
So, once again, the federal government is imposing new regulations and funding to overhaul and disrupt a system that will help less than 2% of the involved population.
 
We've seen this story before.