Press Release: (Palm Harbor, FL – Sept. 13, 2013) The Libertarian Party of Florida (LPF) overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the implementation of the CCSS in Florida.
Common Core was developed in an effort to create uniform standards for students across the nation. Test results will determine teacher pay, tenure, funding and student advancement. Common Core implements a massive database collecting all student data to be shared with states, corporations and researchers without consent and will function as a managed labor system for the need of businesses and government.
Common Core was promoted by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in an effort to create a top-down education model, devoid of free market competition or local governance of content in local school systems.
Libertarians believe in increasing local control from parents, students, and community leaders in determining what best serves the schooling needs of children across the state of Florida without government interference.
The Libertarian Party of Florida offers its full support of activities to halt further implementation of CCSS in the state of Florida and supports a full repeal of any action that has resulted in, authorized, or compelled the implementation of CCSS to date.
LPF Opposes Common Core
Contact
Ronald Thomas
Public Relations Officer
[email protected]
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Macy John
Communications Director
Libertarian Party of Florida
1334 Tampa Road, Suite 2
Palm Harbor, Florida 34683
Toll Free: 1855-FLA-FREE (855-352-3733)
Website: www.lpf.org
Email: [email protected]
Please note that Florida has a broad public records law, and that all correspondence to me via email may be subject to disclosure.
So just be honest; admit that you want to be able to home-school your kids about creationism and have it count as biology and history.
From what I have seen, Libertarians are less likely to be creationists than are Democrats or Republicans, although there are some Libertarians who are.
Common Core was originally a Libertarian-oriented option to a Department of Education we successfully pitched to Ronald Reagan, who tried to end that agency. The LPF at the time drove interest.
Obviously things have gone in parts awry after 30+ years, but Common Core has helped bring about focus on thinking skills, charter schools and market-like options, and valuable debate on teacher standards. LPF would likely be in a stronger position noting these facts and also pointing out that Homeschoolers in Florida have developed their own successful guidelines, and that should be where they stop–as potentially useful suggested guidelines. See: http://pinellashomeschoolhelp.webs.com/index.htm#127450969
Common Core should not be used as a stalking horse for a Federal takeover but as teacher-suggested guidelines. A true education looks at many things, and Libertarians are very supportive of the option of student ( as opposed to parent) -driven learning such as Sudbury Schools.
Florida unlike many states has strong county autonomy thanks to Libertarians and the distribution of students is along 2% Home Schooled, and half and half common and private. In addition, local schools have potentially strong parent advisory boards, and many Counties have Home School advisory boards to interface with the common school system. Locally run but non-tax and non-compulsory common schools that offer many options is a good model to discuss.
If that’s from the minutes of the meeting, individual voters don’t get singled out for identification unless everyone is named with their votes.
I abstained because a few members in my region stated that they don’t hate common core like many others do.
Others found the resolution a little soft, especially at the end.
Had the resolution been worded differently perhaps I would have voted
If you want to know how well you’re doing something, you have to be able to measure it. This is, like, “the scientific method-101.” If you want to know how well you’re teaching children, you have to be able to measure how well they were taught.
Common Core does two things. The more important is it creates a standard for what students should be taught, that all states can measure against. The second is it measures how well they were taught, so we can know weather or not it’s working.
Common Core is a not a federal program. Common Core is not a creation of the federal government. Common Core is not a requirement for any federal program.
There is no federal database of student outcomes. There is no plan for a federal database of student outcomes. Databases cost money though, and thankfully there is federal money available, to states and locales, to create databases.
To view that money as some kind of devious trap to create a backdoor for a hypothetical future invasion of privacy is paranoia. To oppose an optional, states-owned, unified curriculum simply because of your paranoia is foolishness.
Put I don’t think you’re really paranoid and foolish.
So just be honest; admit that you want to be able to home-school your kids about creationism and have it count as biology and history.
correction*
11-0 with one abstention – Mike Kane
Here is a copy of the resolution that was passed by the LPF Executive Committee.
The vote was unanimous, 12-0. There was one abstention – Mike Kane.
Libertarian Party of Florida
RESOLUTION CONCERNING COMMON CORE EDUCATION STANDARDS
Whereas, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been developed in an effort to create uniform standards for American students across the nation and promoted by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in an effort to create a top-down education model devoid of free market competition and accountability; and
Whereas, the CCSS has been adopted in numerous states as part of a federally backed “payoff” which allows those states to become eligible for funds under the Race to the Top program, a massive earmark contained within the federal government stimulus packages; and
Whereas, SB 1076 passed the Republican-controlled Florida House unanimously, passed the Republican-controlled Florida Senate 33-7, and was signed into law by Republican Governor Rick Scott on April 22, 2013; and
Whereas, SB 1076 requires every public school to give the Common Core Assessments and codifies Common Core standards in English Language Arts and mathematics under the “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards”; and
Whereas, the Libertarian Party of Florida, as stated in the 2013 Libertarian Party of Florida platform, advocates that, “Education is a parental responsibility and best handled at the most local level… We support individual and community based decision-making where people and entities freely decide what is best for their students or children.”; and
Whereas, the Libertarian Party of Florida, as stated in the national 2012 Libertarian Party platform, advocates that, “Education is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality, accountability and efficiency with more diversity of choice. Recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, we would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government. Parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children’s education.”; and therefore be it
Resolved, that the Libertarian Party of Florida condemns the implementation of the CCSS in Florida and recognizes the inherent federal and state overreach contained therein, in violation of the enumerated powers of the U.S. Constitution, the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and individual rights of parents, guardians, and Florida students; and be it further
Resolved, that the Libertarian Party of Florida rejects wholeheartedly the collection of personal student “assessment data,” including fingerprints and other biometric data, for any non-educational purpose by the state of Florida, the federal government of the United States, or private corporate interests on the grounds that life, liberty and happiness cannot prosper under continuous state surveillance, that the use by the state of people or technology to monitor, account for, and keep Floridians under surveillance, especially where there is no evidence of criminal behavior, restricts the normal interaction of peoples; and be it further
Resolved, that the Libertarian Party of Florida offers its full support of activities to halt further implementation of CCSS in the state of Florida and supports a full repeal of any action that has resulted in, authorized, or compelled the implementation of CCSS to date; therefore, the Libertarian Party of Florida fully rejects the CCSS plan and its ultimate goal to further empower the failing education bureaucracy at the state and federal levels and the Libertarian Party of Florida calls for a free market education system that empowers parents and guardians, who are best situated to decide what is in their own children’s best interests, to freely decide how to educate their children through the use of all measures that enhance the educational choices available, including charter schools, vouchers or tax credits for private school tuition, and home schooling.
I hear a lot of opposition to Common Core among Republicans here. Gov. Scott (R) has embraced and supported Common Core, so this may be a great issue for Libertarians to run on in 2014.