A Call To Action: Central Ohio Common Core Campaign

We are gearing up for our first campaign!

The goal of this campaign is to spread a thorough awareness of Common Core, its effects on education, and the ultimate reversal of Common Core legislation in Ohio. National attention is a secondary goal.

To start, I have been gathering advisers and counselors and building the campaign team. Zechariah Ong from MinorsVote.com; and Jessica and Warren Edstrom, co-founder of the Voices of America and Vice President of the Ohio School Board Leaders, are just a few of the advisers for the campaign.

What we need from any readers of this blog post are personal stories of how Common Core has affected you as a parent or student or educator. Please comment in the links to your story or please email me the story at: sam_i_am77@yahoo.com.

We will soon be launching petitions, Youtube videos and podcasts, press releases, and writing letters to our politicians. Our resources are quite limited, so we are also seeking funding for this project, but with the technological innovations, we should be able to do most things without paying a cent.

We have already contacted a few school boards and waiting for their responses. We are building a list of those members that are running for re-election and whether they support Common Core or not.

Current Bill in the Ohio House to Repeal Common Core

Pray for us! This is probably the first time we ever campaigned in this magnitude. If you would like to donate to our cause, please visit this link.

Looking forward to working with all of you,
Samuel Garcia

Responses From Local School Board Concerning The Common Core Standards

The question: "What is your opinion on Common Core and how it will affect education on Central Ohio?" was postulated to members of the Worthington Board of Education in Franklin County, Ohio. Response from the board President:

I have no idea how it will affect education in Central Ohio since I am unfamiliar with what other local school districts are doing.

Based upon the curriculum presented to the Board of Education this past Monday, I am quite confident that Worthington has developed a plan of implementation that will certainly be beneficial, Common Core or no, to the vast majority of our students. The new curriculum is available on the website you visited. Thanks for the inquiry,

Board President, David A. Bressman

Responses from other board members:

I think the common core curriculum will help raise student achievement in central Ohio. It is a rigorous curriculum that helps develop 21st century skills. The internationally bench marked curriculum will help promote college and career readiness for all students, along with critical thinking skills. With our society being so transient, I think this will help students who move from one district to another as they should all be on the same page as far as grade level curriculum. Jennifer Best

Philosophically, I oppose standards based education.  As you know, the Common Core State Standards were a state initiative led by Republican governors such as George and Jeb Bush to improve education.  I think that the common core state standards may marginally improve learning in some of the under resourced schools in central Ohio, but I fear that they may undercut high level learning in some of our best schools.  Hope that helps. Wilson Charles

We have not received responses from the other board members yet, but according to the Re-Elect Marc Schare website:

My primary academic focus has been through my work on the district’s “Race to the Top” committee. The committee has representatives from our teachers and administrators and has had three primary focus areas. 1) The use of data to guide instructional practice 2) A methodology to fairly and objectively evaluate teachers 3) Implementation of a curriculum based on the Common Core State Standards

We will soon launch an educational campaign against Common Core in Ohio. Stay tuned.