New Hampshire’s legacy in education has been pretty bad during the Lynch and Hassan administration. In spite of their legacy, we are fortunate that our students have done pretty well when compared to students across the country.
New Hampshire’s Department of Education developed and supported poorly written academic standards pre-Common Core and now with Common Core, we are seeing they’re not much better.
Compare that to our friends just to the south of us in Massachusetts. The Mass. Department of Education, when led by Dr. Sandra Stotsky, developed some of the best academic standards in the country. Not only did they set a goal of offering their schools the best, they then went to work on reforms that led their students to finish at the top.
Even with a large metropolitan city like Boston, their students were receiving a quality education and with far bigger challenges than what New Hampshire faces. They managed to make sure that superior quality, extended to children in all socio-economic conditions.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
New Hampshire would be wise to learn from this example. With the right Governor, and the right leader in the Dept. of Ed. you can expect schools to offer your children the best education available.
So why isn’t that happening in New Hampshire?
First we haven’t had the leadership from both Governors Lynch or Hassan. Both have failed to prioritize public education.
Under Governor Patrick, they abandoned all they had accomplished and signed on to the Common Core reforms. Massachusetts parents are now in an uproar.
They’ve gathered over 65k signatures from parents across Mass. in an effort to rid their schools from the Common Core reforms. Going from the best to Common Core has angered parents across the state.
This should be an example to parents in New Hampshire. It takes moms and dads to join together to fight for their children and their public schools.
Too many it seems, are content to accept mediocrity. Why?
If you want to improve the state of public education, you have to fight for it. You have to stop thinking that throwing tax dollars at your school is going to offer your child the best. It’s not.
We encourage you to read the info below from Mass. Get involved in this fight in New Hampshire and work with other parents and activists to look at meaningful ways to improve the quality of standards, testing and curriculum.
Why should our kids get the short end of the stick? If you want change, you have to fight for it.
END Common Core Massachusetts
3 hrs
COMMON CORE OPPONENTS “ANXIOUS” ABOUT MEETING SIGNATURE REQUIREMENT
By Michael Norton
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, NOV. 19, 2015….Donna Colorio is anxious and exhausted, but happy.
The former Worcester School Committee member has been leading a volunteer effort to gather the 64,750 certified voter signatures needed to place a proposed repeal of Common Core education standards on the 2016 statewide ballot.
“I’m absolutely positively so happy we did this, even though it took everything out of my people,” Colorio, founder of the Common Core Forum told the News Service Thursday morning. “We did do something we believe in so much.”
Colorio estimated her team of volunteers, which she pegged at about 500, collected more than 90,000 signatures requiring weeks of work. About half of those volunteers, she said, collected signatures daily or on weekends at supermarkets, soccer games and other public places.
The question would ask voters to rescind the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s vote in July 2010 to adopt the Common Core standards for math and English and to restore curriculum frameworks that were in place prior to that vote.
While volunteers were gathering signatures, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education wrapped up a long process on Tuesday by voting to move away from the MCAS standardized student assessment exam to a hybrid exam based on the MCAS and the PARCC, which was developed by a national consortium is based on the Common Core standards.
Colorio sees the hybrid, or MCAS 2.0, as a “rebranded” PARCC.
“Now more than anything we’re so glad we did this,” she said. “The MCAS 2.0 is nothing but the PARCC test … We are determined more than anything to get this passed.”
Local clerks throughout Massachusetts received thousands of signatures from various campaigns by Wednesday’s deadline and are in the process of certifying that the signatures are those of registered voters.
Campaigns typically find some of their signatures are not certified – signatures must be legible, the address where the voter is registered must be provided, and no more than one quarter of the certified signatures may be collected in one county.
“I think we’re going to come right down to the wire,” said Colorio, who at another point in the interview said, “I think we’ll make it.”
Campaigns to legalize marijuana and expand access to charter schools previously announced their signature counts, expressing confidence that they’ve cleared the certified signature threshold.
Both of those campaigns paid people to collect signatures, an option Colorio used at the end of her campaign to collect 2,000 signatures.
She said it costs $2.75 to $4 per raw signature
“It’s expensive. We didn’t have the money,” Colorio said when asked why she didn’t rely more on paid signature gatherers.
A Worcester School Committee member from 2011 until 2013, Colorio described the campaign as “grass roots” and one that received donations of mostly $10 or $20.
“A majority of the committee people were parents and teachers,” she said. “We’re feeling extremely anxious right now, but relieved in knowing we did all we can do.”
Gov. Charlie Baker, while campaigning for the Corner Office in 2010, testified against adopting the Common Core standards.
“I would love him to write an executive order right now and get us out of the Common core and the PARCC testing,” Colorio said.
END
11/19/2015