Week 1 – Contact Kansas Legislators | Kansans Against Common Core

CALL TO ACTION – WEEK 1

CONTACT KANSAS LEGISLATORS

Welcome to our first Kansans Against Common Core Call to Action!

We will be posting a new Call to Action each week, as we countdown to the start of the next legislative session. There are only six more weeks until the Kansas Legislature will return to Topeka on January 13^th. We need to be as active as possible between now and then. Although the holiday season is upon us, and we are all busy with friends, family, faith and festivity commitments – we hope you will please take a few moments of your time to participate.
Thank you!

CONTACT KANSAS LEGISLATORS:
Email, call, send a handwritten letter – or even send a Christmas card – to your Kansas legislators telling them you want Common Core Standards out of Kansas. Kansas can do better! It is very important for the legislators to hear from as many Kansans as possible – they want to hear from YOU! It is crucial that they hear your voice on this matter, or things will not change.

We encourage you to convey your personal concerns and message directly to your Kansas Representative and Senator, but we also encourage you to email all legislators (email lists below). Please remember to stick with the facts, and to be respectful in all forms of communication.

You may want to put something like “Stop Common Core Standards” in the subject line of your email, but also consider other options like “Restore Local Education in KS” or “Concerns with Common Core Standards”. It is important that our efforts are grassroots and personal – not just form emails or letters.

Here are some great, concise points of concern with the Common Core Standards to include or use when writing or calling…

(from Tip Sheet: Common Core Standards – Joy Pullmann, June 11, 2013)

Point 1: Common Core is of mediocre academic quality, according to nationally known experts, and research shows education standards do not improve student achievement.

Point 2: Common Core was not created by states in any meaningful sense. It was written behind closed doors by unelected committees inside organizations funded largely by the federal government.

Point 3: Most states have agreed to subject their laws to federally funded and monitored Common Core testing groups, largely through contracts legislatures have not reviewed.

Point 4: Many states promised the federal government they would trade their standards for Common Core before a draft or final version of the standards was published.

Point 5: The national Common Core testing groups have not specified what data they will require of states within their student assessments, but they have promised the federal government will receive full access. The Obama administration has removed federal protections that in the past limited student data-sharing and required schools to inform parents of it.

Point 6: Common Core threatens school choice, private schools, and home schools by creating a national market for education in which all tests—including the SAT, ACT, Iowa Basic, and Stanford 10—and most curricula are structured according to one system.

Point 7: Common Core is entirely experimental. No state or school has ever tested it.

Point 8: Education standards are not curriculum, but they determine what children will and will not learn. They define curriculum. And the federally funded testing consortia are creating a model Common Core curriculum, although federal curriculum creation is illegal.

Point 9: Almost no state has analyzed how much retraining teachers, new curriculum, and upgrading technology by 2016 for online-only Common Core tests will cost taxpayers.

Point 10: There is no process for parents, teachers, and school boards to provide feedback or gain flexibility on all or part of Common Core as students begin encountering it.

Point 11: Common Core assumes one schedule of learning fits all children, and a small group of paid experts know what it is. It also rests on the premise, rejected by many communities and parents, that the sole purpose of public education is workforce training.

References
“The Common Core: A Poor Choice For States,” The Heartland Institute: http://heartland.org/policy-documents/common-core-poor-choice-states.

Another good resource for facts and information is Truth in American Education, www.truthinamericaneducation.com.

Did you know there was an effort to “pause” Common Core last session?
If you would like to know how your legislator voted on the effort to “pause” Common Core, please visit our website under KS Legislation, HB 2391(2013) to see the final vote for both the Senate and the House. This vote is a good indicator of where your legislator stands on the issue of Common Core. Support for 2391 meant support for a pause and review of Common Core in Kansas, but voting “No” meant continuing down the road of full implementation… which is where we are today.

And if you haven’t yet signed the Stop Common Core in Kansas Petition,
please do so now and ask your friends and family to sign it too.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stop-common-core-in-kansas/

Thank you for taking the time to contact your Kansas legislators!

Please share with other concerned Kansans.

Kansans Against Common Core
www.kansansagainstcommoncore.com