The New York Common Core Task Force released its report reviewing the Common Core State Standards. The task force recommended Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) maintain “key instructional shifts set forth in the Common Core Standards” while revising parts that do not fit the needs of New York schools, educators, and other stakeholders.
The following statements from education policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Donald Kendal, new media specialist, at [email protected] and 312/377-4000.
“Governor Cuomo’s task force assumes that a restart and a rebranding – plus a few tweaks – will cure what ails Common Core. It won’t. The main problem is not process but substance: specifically, the persistent scheme by an industrial-education complex to ditch the liberal learning that liberates individuals in favor of workforce development designed to meet governmental goals.”
Robert G. Holland
Senior Fellow, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“Why would the New York Common Core Task Force push for shoddy construction on a shaky foundation? They claim to be ‘building upon the foundation established by the Common Core Standards.’ Why would they want to build on such a rickety ‘foundation’ with standards that are incomplete, erroneous, and politically biased? If they really wanted a balanced, rigorous, and politically balanced set of academic standards they already exist. For example, the ACT organization has standards and tests that would fill this need.”
David V. Anderson
Senior Fellow
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“Keeping Common Core is harmful to New York state students. The Nation’s Report Card showed declining test scores for New York students. The Common Core-aligned PARCC tests show only 31.3 percent of students are proficient in English and only 38.1 percent are proficient in mathematics. Instead of perpetuating a one-size-fits-all standards-based curriculum, it is time to open education to competition and myriad new options to meet the specific needs of each child’s learning style.”
Lennie Jarratt
Project Manager, Education
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
847/302-3985
“As one reads the document produced by the New York Common Core Task Force, it becomes clear that everyone got what they wanted: a blanket document that accounted for all the complaints about Common Core, with a slight nod toward the myth of local control and the reduction of time spent testing. As a document, it illustrates just why the nationalization of education is such a bad idea. As a set of policies, it will be a surprise if anything really changes.
“Until money follows the child to a vast new array of independent education providers, task forces and bureaucrats will continue to reshuffle the deck chairs on the school district Titanic.”
Bruno Behrend
Senior Fellow, Education Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“Governor Cuomo had asked the Common Core Task Force for a ‘total reboot’ of New York’s education system. How much of that reboot the governor really wanted is an open question, but what he got back from the NYCCTF was just some nibbling around the edges. A Common Core by any other name is still Common Core.
“You can repackage and ‘revise’ the standards all you want, but in the end, they will still be Common Core. The task force could have swung for the fences and suggested truly radical and far-reaching reform to Cuomo, but instead it opted to just play small ball. While Cuomo and the task force will pretend they’ve actually made some meaningful reforms here, the parents and students of the Empire State will know the truth.”
Tim Benson
Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
The Heartland Institute is a 31-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Robert Holland, a journalist and author who has championed school choice throughout his career, is a Heartland Institute Senior Fellow addressing education policy.
Lennie Jarratt is the former director of the Center for Education Opportunities at The Heartland Institute
Bruno Behrend, J.D., is a senior fellow for education policy at The Heartland Institute.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
