National Standards, National Tests, National Indoctrination!

Donna Garner

[Washington Post announced federal government's plans to create national standards and testing. Education specialist, Donna Garner shared today her insights on the federal government’s massive intrusion into state affairs.—Susan Myers]

What a hoax! The federal government is going to create national standards that lead to national tests that lead to national indoctrination of our children, and Arne Duncan is trying to make it look as if this whole idea has "bubbled up from the states." Nonsense. He has put out the word to the states that if their states do not sign onto the national standards, bad consequences will follow; and the idea that the states pushed this idea is bogus. It has been the Washington bureaucrats, Obama, and Arne who have pushed this entire scheme to gain control of every public school child in this country.

What is amazing is the breathtaking speed at which this is moving, in hopes that the American people will not notice until it is too late.

I am so proud of the Commissioners of Education in Texas, Alaska, Missouri, and South Carolina who are smart enough to recognize "a red herring" when they see one. These people need to be congratulated for their wisdom and for their courage.

To show what a "red herring" this idea of national standards/national tests really is, please notice that the issue of whole language vs. phonics is not even going to be addressed in them. To ignore the empirical reading research that has been done by the National Institutes of Health that proves that phonemic awareness and decoding skills are the key to becoming a successful reader is a crime in itself! This further shows that nothing good will ever come out of the national standards/national tests movement if the one thing upon which we actually have solid scientific and medically based education research is going to be ignored.

"Or whether students should be drilled on math facts"—In other words, the national standards are not going to require students to learn those "terrible" math facts that produced the greatest mathematicians and scientists in the whole world! What good are national standards if they do not guide the public schools into the teaching of real math and real science?

Every person in America should voice outrage because the largest percentage of students attend the public schools, and whatever those students learn or do not learn impacts the entire future of our nation.