As our readers know by now, we are among those opposed to the further implementation of the Common Core program in our North Carolina schools.  Part of the opposition strategy is to have the Common Core Study Committee, created by the NC General Assembly (NC/GA) with a mandate for presenting Common Core recommendations by December of 2014, bring their report and recommendations to the NC/GA early, by May rather than December.  We want the Committee to recommend, at the very least, that the implementation schedule be paused pending further study, and since May comes during the NC/GA spring session, their recommendations may thereby be implemented before the next school year begins next fall.

The remainder of the strategy is to become engaged, to educate the public by contacting our elected officials and our local news outlets (via letters to newspaper editors), and to sway the members of the Study Committee.  To further that last objective, we must have our views represented at the meetings of the Committee, and the first meeting is scheduled for 1:00pm on Tuesday after next, the 17th of December, in Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Raleigh.  According to one member of the Committee, this first meeting will probably focus on organization rather than actual debate and/or discussion, but all of the Committee’s meetings are open to the public.  It would therefore be helpful if the opposition made their presence known.

For those who may need to get up to speed on the Common Core threat:

Stop Common Core NC is a good clearinghouse for Common Core information and developments, and they have an informative two-page handout that bores into the objectional aspects of Common Core.

The John Locke Foundation (mainly Terry Snoops) has done a lot of research into the ramifications of Common Core, resulting in their Sixty Questions About Common Core.