It's been a long time since I was writing anything for a blog. Like many of you, I stuck to social media posts. Pointless back and forth arguments that didn't really accomplish anything but fuel bitterness. The incessant need to get the last word, going back and forth through the comments and not really accomplishing anything of merit or substance.
For nearly 30 years I've been passionate about politics and history especially and to say a lot has changed in that 30 years is putting it lightly. As I've grown, been married, had children, and now face them growing I have always worried about what kind of future we were handing them, or at least on track to hand them.
While the back and forth of partisan politics has sadly not changed much over the years, what is being pushed through our education system to our children certainly has. It is my hope that through these posts and, hopefully, the discussions that will stem from them we can in the very least have civil debate and honest advocacy for ways to improve something we all should be able to agree on, the education of our kids.
To those with whom I share a majority of political alignment with, this would of course be easy. However, what I hope to accomplish here is more about finding some degree of common ground in education standards and curriculum. Ground that even those with whom I may disagree on in many regards can stand on and in the very least honestly discuss.
I would like to think that when many kids are graduating from high school with an 8th grade or in some cases below reading level, there shouldn't be a partisan fight to recognize that this is unacceptable.
Let's start here, over time both parties have been trying to find the best solutions to advance education, and both parties have failed miserably to do so. At the federal level there have been 2 major changes to education curriculum, (it could be argued that President Trump is focusing on enacting a 3rd that is more about reversing the first 2). At the state level there has been another set of changes, referred to as "common core", which is not a part of the other 2 technically but let's dig in.
The first of these changes were signed into law on January 8, 2002 by former president George Bush, this was called the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001". Phasing in different standards over time with annual testing starting in 2005/2006.
Over time this was criticized by teachers, (most likely because many of them hated Bush so it was ok to ignore the democrats support of NCLB and just pin it on Bush), because many felt they had to "teach to the test". Of course government did what government does, added more problems and less solutions. This is where the policy of "Common Core" comes into play.
Common Core curriculum changes officially began in June of 2010. It was now President Obama in office. Common Core was technically a state led change to the education system that became a nightmare for parents and teachers. This is a rare case where both the left and the right were opposed to an education policy albeit for differing reasons.
The "right" opposed it because Bill and Melinda Gates were heavily involved in it's creation and implementation, combined with Obama's use of grants to encourage implementation this became a target of the Conservatives as government overreach above states rights.
The "left", teachers unions etc. opposed it for a similar reason. Too much input from people like Bill Gates and not enough from actual teachers etc. What's fascinating is that both parents and teachers considered these new educational standards as age inappropriate, (remember that term).
What has happened to our education system over the last 20 years has in fact drawn criticism from both sides of the political aisle. The conservatives believe that the federal takeover of education on such a massive scale has not only stripped away an important aspect of states rights but has also given us results opposite of what you would expect with new standards. You would expect better results instead of worse.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, (NAEP), our students proficiency scores have been plummeting for years. How can this be so with all of these wonderful reforms? We will explore this in time but for now I will leave you with this thought.
Just a few short years ago parents, teachers, democrats, and republicans understood there was such a thing as age appropriate. How then in 2025 can so many people in the educational community no longer understand that when it comes to topics of sex and gender?
I will leave you with that question for now. Thank you for reading. You can find me on X.
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