To the editor:

On April 2, a state-wide meeting on Common Core was held in Olympia. It was sponsored by Senator Marilyn Chase, Democrat, and Senator Pam Roach, Republican. Both senators agreed that the state of Washington’s commitment to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is of great concern. The Senate hearing room was filled to capacity. Many people expressed a conviction that Common Core is very bad education and they want the Washington State Legislature to repeal the law which requires implementation throughout the state.

Speaker after speaker insisted that the loss of local control of our schools is unacceptable; parents and teachers know their students and the best way to teach them.

Many parents questioned why the testing and assessments are so secret and why parents have no access to them. They also questioned the amount of time spent on testing and how the time lost disrupts the students’ learning.

One parent felt that his child was being cheated by a system that is more concerned with process than with getting the correct answer. His son is a good math student but sees the endless emphasis on process to be detrimental. His son, who formerly loved math, now hates it.

One state legislator wondered why our students and teachers are being used as guinea pigs in another education fad.

A retired teacher listed the number of “reforms”: Back to Basics, Open Classroom, Whole Language, the Effective Schools Movement, Mastery Learning, America 2000, International Baccalaureate, No Child Left Behind, and now Race to the Top aka Common Core. Every few years, someone dreams up a panacea to address education in the United States and government rushes in to spend tax dollars on it. That is just what Common Core is – the latest fad.

JOAN W. GORNER

Poulsbo