Is it "Imperative" for Connecticut to accept this "Massive Government Overreach"?

Jeb Bush, brother of George W, and former governor of Florida, did an interview with This Week on Sunday, 10.20.2013. I've seen his name pop up a few times in relation to Common Core, and I'm definitely going to be looking into why he is so dedicated to getting his brother's "reforms", through his No Child Left Behind legacy, pushed further along. However, right now I will be speaking to some of the actual content of his interview, rather than dealing with why he even had one about it at all.



I have to admit that this interview is a fantastic piece of marketing: 

But we could just, you know, comfortably go in decline. If we accept that notion that only 1/3 of our kids are college or career ready. Even though we spend more per student than any country in the world, by the way.

The man is definitely confident in his ability to manipulate us with his passive aggressiveness. Truly, it's brilliant.

There's a big fear...about this massive government overreach. I totally appreciate that. But that's not what this is. This is a national imperative. It's not a federal government program.

If "imperative" was expressed as a noun it means:

Dictionary.com: 4. a command.
Collins English Word Dictionary: 5. an order or command  

If "imperative" was expressed as an adjective, it means:

Dictionary.com: 1. absolutely necessary or required; unavoidable
Collins English Word Dictionary: 2. peremptory or authoritative: an imperative tone of voice

So while it may not be a "government program", it is, through funds that some states received through Race To The Top, government mandated, and as Jeb said, "imperative." That is definitely feeling like "massive government overreach" to me. And I am not a Tea Party member. 

We have to continue to ask ourselves, and our representatives, "Why are we allowing this in Connecticut when we haven't even received any Race To The Top funds? Common Core is not "imperative" in Connecticut.

During the course of his interview, Jeb Bush also said:

...if you measure it by outcomes... 25% of kids pass all of the four segments of the ACT test which means that they're college or career ready, or college ready.

Well here is the raw data on Connecticut's ACT scores for 2012. And here is the version they made easier to read with nice charts and such. And here is one of those charts that is not only nice, but quite telling:

Evidently, here in Connecticut our kids that took this test did better than the national average. In English we did 19% better, in Algebra we did 22% better, in Social Studies we did 19% better and it Biology we did 17% better. And even though one would expect the amount of kids who met all four of ACTs benchmarks to be much lower, since some kids might be good at English and not as good in science, we still managed to do 18% better than the national average.

Granted, this does mean that 14% of the Connecticut kids who took this test are not ready for a college English class, 32% are not ready for college Algebra, 29% are not ready for college Social Studies, and 62% are not ready for college Science. But let's take a look at some more of the report:

Hmm. Seems that most of the kids in Connecticut who are not doing well are African American, Hispanic, and in some cases, American Indian. And as it says first thing in the foreward of the report OPPORTUNITY IN CONNECTICUT: The Impact of Race, Poverty and Education on Family Economic Success, written by the Connecticut Association for Human Services:

"...Governor Malloy and lawmakers are... vowing to significantly reform Connecticut’s public schools amidst calls for accountability to students and closing the achievement gap. We applaud these goals, but we also point out that underlying inequalities related to race and poverty that impact opportunity in Connecticut must be addressed. Without attending to the disparities that exist in our highly favored state, school reform will not reach its mark, and inequality will persist for many children based on the color of their skin or where they live."

So I think it's pretty safe to assume that our overall education here in CT is not the problem; the problem seems to be more of a social and economic one.

Interestingly, despite the disparity in our low income areas to our high income areas, Connecticut was still tied for first place in most kids prepared for college English. We were tied for second place in most kids prepared for college Math. And we were tied for second place in most kids prepared for college Science.

We have to continue to ask ourselves, and our representatives, "Why are we allowing this in Connecticut when we haven't even received any Race To The Top funds? Common Core is not "imperative" in Connecticut. The system we were already using was one of the very best in the country. Why change it? Instead of fixing something that's not broken, why not concentrate our energy on helping the kids in our state who were not served by it? Why not concentrate on helping the kids who need it, and let the excellent-enough alone?

Mississippi Senator Angela Burks Hill

I sat through this excellent presentation and was disappointed that during the last couple of minutes she made her views on Obamacare evident, and the fact that she's a Republican. I'm trying to stay away from partisan politics here, but this presentation is worth it. With all the things I've been previewing, I can state wholeheartedly that it's very minor.