There is nothing balanced about Common Core State Standards

On October 23 and 24, 2014 Channel 3 local news ran a two part – I guess I’ll call it news piece – on Common Core State Standards totaling approximately 5 minutes in length. Although I was not excited about the segments I was looking forward to seeing them as I had been in contact with the reporter since late April/early May of this year. She had asked me for a lot of information and contacts and I was more than pleased to share what I had.

Although I am quickly approaching my two year anniversary in the battle to stop CCSS from doing anymore damage to anymore children, and am not completely unaware of the media’s lack of interest, I guess somewhere inside me I keep thinking with childlike hope that someone in the media will care enough to tell the story straight. So I watched -cautious but hopeful.

In the end it was free advertisement for Common Core State Standards with a few of us moms in disagreement parsed out for contrast, I’m guessing.

I emailed the reporter to ask her if she vetted the UNLV professor that was in support of the standards and why was he not balanced against a professor who had an opposing view. I did not feel my question was out of line considering the amount of information I had given the reporter and the supporting documentation – not the least of which was Stanford Professor Jim Milgram’s comment that “3-4 years with (CCSS Math) and the damage cannot be undone.” That would have made for an interesting debate considering his extensive background with fuzzy math.

The response I received was, “I personally feel (the story) was balanced and thoughtful.”

The state superintendent of public instruction for Nevada and the Clark County superintendent were given ample time to promote Common Core State Standards, without dispute. One mother who is looking to get more funding from the state for education spoke at length on how “it clicked” for her daughter. One teacher, cheerfully spread across the floor, working the same math problem over and over again on a white board rambled on, evidence-free, on the standards, as did a principal from a Magnet school (although, to her credit, she did say she was not enamored with all aspects of CCSS).

But the parents that have no vested interest outside of what’s best for their children and only wanted to speak for their children were given about 30 seconds all tolled. A smidge of financial concerns were brought up however to the unsuspecting newcomer all is well in the classrooms of Nevada. Common Core State Standards is just the latest reform to sweep through our western desert happily serving the youth of the Battle Born state.

If this reporter feels her story was “balanced” then I suspect she was bullied on the teeter-totter as a child. Perhaps balance is not the appropriate outcome media should be striving for; perhaps just plain truth would work for most people. There is nothing balanced about Common Core State Standards. There is nothing balanced about the federal government coercing cash-poor states into taking on something it does not want, cannot afford, is ill-prepared to implement and without pilot studies has no idea if it will want to maintain. Where is the balance in kicking-to-the-curb concerned parents? Threatening unhappy teachers? Forcing children to task outside of their cognitive ability? Where, for Pete’s sake, is the balance in that?

By all means media should be balanced in reporting issues. Media should also come from a place of honor and integrity when reporting the facts and truth.

One last thought. The reporter also stated in a second communication, “You and (your) fellow parents have a vast amount of knowledge.” Perhaps if Channel 3 had reported some of that admitted and provable “vast amount of knowledge” instead of the opinions of the paid government employees we might be able to call the reporting “balanced.”