Editor:

While I appreciate the efforts of Grant Scott-Goforth to paint a palatable and even gushing verbal picture of the current adaptations of schools to the Common Core mandates ("The Importance of Why," Aug. 28), I see he has left a lot out of that picture.

Yes, educators and schools around the country were indeed "motivated" to adopt these standards ... or not receive any federal funds.

Yes, these guidelines were "promoted" by educators in California, after being crafted in board rooms like those of Microsoft's Bill Gates (don't you guys read?) whose company will supply much of the hardware and most of the software to reach these "goals."

What will happen to those schools who do not reach the standards set by the tests that await the teacher and students as they scramble to meet those demands, sometimes sacrificing time needed in one-on-one for those requiring a bit more time? And in a classroom increasingly crowded due to amorphously invoked "budget cuts"?

Common Core, Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind: some of us educators (I taught for 30 years) see this overall project in another way: an abrupt raising of standards to evince created faults for the purpose of dismantling public education.

And there is no amount of lipstick available to dandy that pig.

Steve Infantino, Arcata

Editor:

Sure, let's give a warm welcome to Common Core (read: Common Sense) — if teachers will actually be allowed to practice the spirit of this reform.

Common Core's predecessor, Bush's test-happy "No Child Left Behind," proved an educational disaster, but it paid off big for the testing industry — about $2 billion to $5 billion a year big. (And, no surprise, Bush has old ties with a top test corporation.)

Bush's education architect, Sandy Kress (who made over $4 million from lobbying contracts in the first three years of NCLB), is now pushing pre-kindergarten testing, so hold onto your tax wallets, and your babies. And, sadly, given the dark side of the education industry, Common Core could take corporate profiteering to a new level.

Sounds good though.

(Side note: Jung, a State board of Education mouthpiece, insists "... teachers never did and never will teach to the test." Really?)

Diana Lynn, Blue Lake