Issue Position: Common Core Initiative

Issue Position

Bill Haslam, our current Governor, has consistently pushed for Common Core in our schools. While the intention of the program was to raise the standard for the students in this nation and state, one of the initial members of the Common Core validation committee, Dr. Jim Milgram, mathematics professor at Stanford University, says that the result of Common Core will be the opposite, that the student standards will effectively be lowered while claiming that we have improved the American student. Dr. Milgram goes on to say that the end result of this curriculum is "the dumbing down" of America. Here is a Common Core math problem as an example:

Parents and teachers around the state of Tennessee are very upset with Common Core being forced by Governor Haslam on their children. Out of state proponents of Common Core like Bill Gates are heavily funding a campaign to make this state adopt the Common Core standards. And so far their efforts have been successful. Bill Gates is interested in building a national database and has orchestrated a company called InBloom for that purpose. Tennessee is one of 11 states that have introduced PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) which is the assessment arm for Common Core.

When you elect me as your next Governor, I will repeal Common Core and Race to the Top. I will get the federal department of education out of your business and allow you more freedom to educate your child as you see fit. I will encourage public, private, and homeschool learning as viable options to educate our children. I will return local public school funding and oversight to the elected school boards.

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