One Size Fits All: The War on Excellence in Public Education

An interesting perspective on Common Core. An apparent side effect of common core is to marginalize the most talented students. That has been the trend for years in K-12 education - example: forcing hours of mandatory daily homework on students even if they've already mastered the material, then grading them as much on whether or not they've done their homework as on whether or not they know the material.

◼ One size does not fit all in public education. Teaching geared to the average or slowest students in the class harms the brightest, severely limiting their achievement. The best hope to restore America’s former level of academic excellence must be to adopt the techniques provided in the programs offered by the charter and home schools, the specialized high schools like those in New York City and Catholic schools that have made them so successful. - California Policy Center

Most importantly, there must be no mistake about the motivation behind the war on excellence. It is pure unadulterated envy. With Common Core, the president’s signature education program, it is envy writ large. It is part of Obama’s efforts to debase American excellence that, sadly, appear to be bearing fruit.

War demands an appropriate response. It is essential to understand the psychology of Common Core and to mount an effective response. With the vast amount of funding available to public schools, more must be demanded.

There was a time when excellence was the gold standard. Those days must be restored for our country’s children to have any hope for a bright future. To do that, however, we must first win the war.