Yes, parent involvement is sorely lacking for sure. I've been screaming that for a while too. too man see school as all day Day Care, with meals. (All 'free', of course.)

I do not doubt that there are scattered in the education system some good teachers, but the vast majority are not. they can't think for themselves so how can they teach the young to think.

I think that parents need to start getting involved in kids` classrooms, while simultaneously petitioning and lobbying for higher education standards. I choose to volunteer three days a week in my son`s classroom. We have become a society that, rather than revere the best and the brightest, we cater to the the most mentally infirm...and we simply increase the breeding ground conditions for more behaviorally challenged, learning disabled children who are gradually on their way to outnumbering the able learners. I wish that more parents would take responsibility for their own children with such issues. If my child proves to be behaviorally challenged or in some way incompatible for classroom learning, I will simply pull him out and homeschool him rather than ruin the educations of the other kids.

Alternatively, there are other education programs that allow children to advance at their own pace, regardless of grade. Montessori is one such program. There is no reason why Montessori cannot be infused into public education. Where I live, in Vernon, B.C., this has been done successfully. Specialized programs within the public school curriculum (if you cannot afford private school) is the way to go-- because they are less tainted by unconscientious enrollment.

They obviously saw readily enough when it affected them directly.

Even in California, people aren't so ideological as to keep following a crazy idea, once they see, up-close-and-personal, how crazy it is.

Getting them to 'see' is the difficult part.

Exactly. The Feds know this and my guess is that the money will soon be tied to Common Core compliance. The time to stop it is now.

It's called dependency. Like all dependencies, you can choose to rise above it or fall for it. The longer you wait, the harder and more painful the right choice is to make later on.

With schools relying more and more on Federal money it is an uphill battle.

Well said.

It'll just be re-branded somehow. Control needs to be given back to the states and local communities.

It's really disgusting that more parents aren't protesting this and taking control of it.

And that's the mission. Make non achievers who think the gov is their protector and savior. And this starts in kindergarten. The smart ones, instead of having them together to work toward higher learning, are spread out in different classes to become mini teachers to help the lower kids so the teacher can manage a classroom of 30. It's WRONG.

A lack of "math acceleration" and "grade skipping" was exactly what I hated about school prior to college. If I had agreed to the state standards, I never would have achieved anything.