The facts and objections to Common Core State Standards presented herein are explained in detail on stopcommoncore.com’s series of five videos. Based on the evidence presented in these videos and other research, we, as tax paying citizens, petition the Governor, State Legislators, Attorney General, Public Education Commission, Secretary of Education, Public Education Department, and all other education-related offices and entities to rescind and reject Common Core State Standards, in entirety, and restore power over our children’s education to New Mexico’s state and local governments, schools and communities. We ask that said entities move quickly to introduce and pass this legislation because withdrawal from Common Core State Standards becomes more difficult with the passage of time. Our reasons for this petition are stated below:

Common Core was accepted by New Mexico, sight unseen, and before being finalized, in exchange for Race to the Top federal funds and No Child Left Behind Waivers, with no legislative process. Additionally, these national standards must be adopted word for word, no changes, except for the ability to add up to 15% content, which won’t be covered on national tests. 15% is not control and this is education without representation. It effectively removes freedom of choice for state and local educational authority.

Common Core and the aligned assessments violate three federal statutes (The General Education Provisions Act, Department of Education Organization Act, and Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965). These laws prohibit the federal government from directing or supervising K-12 curriculum or instructional materials.

Common Core undermines 10th Amendment Authority of the States over education.

There is no empirical data to support Common Core. It has not been used anywhere in any school and is an experimental methodology at best.

Common Core emphasizes “informational texts” to the detriment of creative literature. This means the Standards dictate that students spend most of their time – 70% — reading nonfiction such as technical manuals, court decisions, government documents, brochures and even menus. Although the Standards commentary claims that this 70% covers all subject areas, not just English, Common Core drafters clearly recommend that at least 50% of the reading material within the English class should be nonfiction informational text, not classic literature. This is contrary to experience that shows that the way to make students more literate is to teach them to love reading – and you do that with literature, not informational texts.

Common Core narrows curricula and prepares our children to be cogs in a national industrial system rather than full citizens in a free Republic.

Common Core leads to national testing that will impose substantial costs on state and local school budgets. No cost analysis has been performed and there is no plan for funding. Costs will include, but not be limited to: professional development, textbooks and instructional manuals, assessments, computer equipment, and network upgrades and maintenance. Nationwide, these costs are estimated at $16 billion.

A massive student data tracking system will contribute to the loss of student and family privacy. The Department of Education is prohibited from maintaining such a database, and is circumventing this prohibition by having the states maintain it and share the data with the federal government.

We disagree with the predominant argument that Common Core will improve New Mexico’s educational standards and results, which historically have been lagging, and we reject the “one size fits all” concept of Common Core. Instead, we petition to give individual schools and districts full local control with the ability to adopt their own high standards, assessments, and research-based curriculum and the ability to encourage and allow for greater parental participation in the education system. With this local control, individual schools and districts retain the ability to modify standards, assessments and curriculum, as needed, which is not the case with Common Core.

Proponents of Common Core want ALL education to be under Common Core. This includes private schools and home schools. David Coleman, primary author of Common Core English Language Arts standards and new president of the College Board, seeks to align the SAT with Common Core and its “unique” method of instruction. This will prevent those not educated in accordance with Common Core from passing the SAT.

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