When it comes to Common Core, the New York Times just doesn't get it

The New York Times just doesn't get it when it comes to education- particularly when it comes to Common Core Standards.

In an article in today's edition, the newspaper paints Common Core as an issue that resonates with Republicans because they failed to overcome Obamacare. The Times picks the usual suspects, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand. Paul, etc. to make it appear that the only people who would be associated with opposition to Common Core are those who are seeking an issue to galvanize the Republican Party.

Only in one paragraph is lip service paid to the idea that opposition to Common Core is not just limited to those on the right.

It is not just conservatives who have turned against the Common Core: The leaders of major teachers unions are also pushing back because of the new, more difficult tests aligned to the standards that are being used to evaluate both students and teachers.

In a long article, that was the only mention of opposition being more broad-based and even then it was limited to leaders of major teachers unions.

In fact, despite what the New York Times believes, opposition to Common Core is growing across the board. The tests are a part of that. The idea that teachers should be evaluated on the basis of what students score on tests is flawed, to say the least. It goes along with the idea being pushed by those who have been attacking public school teachers that the teacher is the only factor when it comes to a child's educational success. Nothing else matters- not home environment, not personal problems, not even something as simple as being sick on a test day. The idea that these poorly written standardized tests should be the focal point for both teachers and students is ludicrous.

Obviously, when the tests are that important, you are going to have teachers teaching to the test. Even if they do not want to, they are going to be pushed in that direction by administrators who will also be judged by the test results.

Common Core is also expensive and pushing schools in the direction of adding more and more technology that is not necessarily needed. We see schools across the nation moving toward providing personal laptops or iPads for students, with many school officials acknowledging they are doing so because of the tests. We have also reached the point where school districts, many of which do not have the money, are having to find a way to provide more technology and keyboarding classes for the students in the lower elementary grades because those students are going to be tested on computers.

Whether this is a good thing for the students' education or not, we have no idea. The same people who push the idea of data, data, and more data as the reason for these drastic changes, have yet to provide any meaningful data that would back this monumental change in America's educational landscape.

Instead, we have millions of dollars being poured into a technology budget for items that will have to be replaced and/or updated frequently.

One thing cannot be denied- Common Core is a godsend for companies that provide computers, tests, test preps, textbooks, and of course, those that provide coaching and offer their expertise and seminars to those who want to be able to keep up with the implementation of Common Core.

Those people were at the table when Common Core was created. The educational business community had far more input than educators themselves.

And while all of those things offer sufficient reason to be opposed to Common Core, the main reason to be against it is its push to label American students as commodities, rather than individuals. The whole idea that we hear being pushed everywhere from the speeches of President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the news releases issued by commissioners of education in the states that are implementing Common Core is that these standards will enable this country to make sure students are college or career ready when they graduate from high school.

To do this, those politicians who support Common Core are asking parents to force their children to undergo the type of schooling they would never favor for their own children. One example- President Obama's speech on education in which he said he was against teaching to the test and that it was not done at the school his daughters attend.

Of course it isn't. His daughters attend a private school that does not have to contend with Common Core.

The idea of having a set of national standards is not a bad one, but please do not expect us to believe, as Common Core supporters do, that local boards of education, elected by the people, are going to be able to maintain control over curriculum. If everything is based on winner-take-all tests, then the curriculum is going to have to be narrowly tailored to focus on statistical results.

The opposition to Common Core is far more broad-based than the New York Times would have you believe. When the Times paints it as yet another left versus right situation, it is trivializing an issue that will have a major impact on the future of this country.