Heartland Institute Education Expert Joy Pullmann Testified Today Against Common Core Before Wisconsin Legislature

Published May 22, 2013
Heartland Institute Research Fellow Joy Pullmann testified today before the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education in opposition to the state adopting Common Core education standards. Pullmann is among the nation’s leading experts on Common Core, providing testimony before several state legislatures, including Pennsylvania earlier this month. Pullmann is the author of the recent Heartland Institute Policy Brief titled “The Common Core: A Poor Choice For States.”
 
Pullmann’s full testimony today before the Joint Committee on Education can be found here. Pullmann testified, in part:

  

“Common Core has never been pilot tested anywhere in the world. It is entirely experimental. So we have no proof that what it demands of kids, and how, improves their achievement. Further, to assume that one progression of learning fits every one of the 50 million American, or 865,000 Wisconsin, students is beyond arrogant – it is an affront to human diversity, freedom, and dignity.
“State leaders were told several things about Common Core to get them to sign it. From the memorandum of agreement governors and state chief school officers signed, those promises included: ‘a state-led process’; standards would include ‘rigorous content and skills,’ ‘be internationally benchmarked,’ and ‘research and evidence based’; that ‘no state will see a decrease in the level of student expectations’; and the organizations writing Common Core would ‘establish an ongoing development process that can support continuous improvement of this first version.’ None of these promises were kept, as you will see.”

The Heartland Institute is a 29-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. To speak to Joy Pullmann, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000or (cell) 312/731-9364. Contact Pullmann directly at [email protected].