[Editor’s Note: Ms. Simon is a reporter for Politico.com.]
[img]2277|right|Arne Duncan||no_popup[/img]U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan realized fairly quickly that he had stumbled last Friday.
He had just told a gathering of state superintendents of education that “white suburban moms” were rebelling against the Common Core academic standards — new guidelines for math and language arts instruction — because their kids had done poorly on the tough new tests.
“All of a sudden, their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought … and that’s pretty scary,” Mr. Duncan said at the event.
Two hours later, with those comments sparking outrage on social media, Mr. Duncan told Politico that he “didn’t say it perfectly.” But he stood by his thesis: To oppose the Common Core is to oppose progress.
“Do we want more for our kids, or do we want less?” Mr. Duncan said. “Do we want higher standards or not?”
That’s the debate that Mr. Duncan dearly wants to have.
It’s not, however, the debate he’s getting.
To the immense frustration of Common Core supporters, an eclectic array of critics have raised sustained and impassioned objections about the new standards. From New York to Florida to Michigan to Louisiana, their voices are so loud and their critiques so varied that they have muddied the narrative around Common Core. It’s no longer a focused national debate about high standards. It is hundreds of local debates about everything from student privacy rights to cursive handwriting to computerized testing to the value of Shakespeare.
Over the summer, Mr. Duncan complained that opponents were “fringe groups” who make “outlandish claims” about “really wacky stuff” such as “mind control, robots, and biometric brain mapping.” There is undoubtedly some of that.
But there are also substantive critiques from all corners. Catholic scholars say the standards aren’t rigorous enough. Early childhood experts say they demand too much. Liberals complain the Common Core opens the door to excessive testing. Conservatives complain it opens the door to federal influence in local schools. Teachers don’t like the new textbooks. Parents don’t like the new homework.
And some critics sense a conspiracy, suggesting that the difficult Common Core tests are designed to make public schools look so bad that parents everywhere — including white, suburban moms — will rush to embrace charter schools, cyber schools, vouchers and other models that turn public education over to private entrepreneurs.
All but four states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, which aim to guide instruction in math and language arts from kindergarten through 12th grade. The standards have been endorsed by a broad coalition of politicians and business and education leaders. Supporters include the national teachers unions and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Yet even as the new standards are rolled out in classrooms from coast to coast, anger continues to bubble. Opponents have organized rallies, circulated petitions, bombarded lawmakers with calls and pulled their children out of standardized tests. One group of Common Core critics even had declared yesterday “National Don’t Send Your Child To School Day” as a form of protest.
Against this backdrop, activists on both sides say Mr. Duncan’s off-the-cuff remark was clumsy, insensitive — and certain to stir the already-roiling pot of dissent.
“He’s made it sound as if to question Common Core is to be unreasonable,” said Andy Smarick, a partner at Bellwether Education, a consulting firm that has analyzed the standards and their implementation. Mr. Smarick called the speech “divisive” and predicted it wouldn’t help the cause.
Many parent activists agreed. They called Mr. Duncan’s remark patronizing and said it fit into a pattern of state and national education officials dismissing parents and ignoring their concerns. Some also said Mr. Duncan was off base to assume that mothers — or fathers — of any race would judge either their children or their local schools poorly because of low scores on standardized tests.
“My children were brilliant before Common Core and they will be brilliant after it’s gone,” said Debbie Ryan, a mother of three public school students in Ridge, N.Y.
