Achieve’s Chairman Emeritus calls for national standards to form national curriculum

In a Wall Street Journal article Louis Gerstner, Chairman Emeritus of Achieve.org, advocated the below changes to the US education system.

” Abolish all local school districts, save 70 (50 states; 20 largest cities). Some states may choose to leave some of the rest as community service organizations, but they would have no direct involvement in the critical task of establishing standards, selecting teachers, and developing curricula.

– Establish a set of national standards for a core curriculum. I would suggest we start with four subjects: reading, math, science and social studies.

– Establish a National Skills Day on which every third, sixth, ninth and 12th-grader would be tested against the national standards. Results would be published nationwide for every school in America.

– Establish national standards for teacher certification and require regular re-evaluations of teacher skills. Increase teacher compensation to permit the best teachers (as measured by advances in student learning) to earn well in excess of $100,000 per year, and allow school leaders to remove underperforming teachers.

– Extend the school day and the school year to effectively add 20 more days of schooling for all K-12 students.”

Keep in mind that the national Common Core standards were written by Achieve and the PARCC testing consortium is also managed by Achieve. They are the central point of origin and execution of the standards and promise they are not intended to create a national core curriculum, as Gerstner advocated. Confusing? Yes, and it is purposefully done to misrepresent the intention of the Common Core Standards.

Even more odd, is his idea to disband all school boards. He suggests leaving one school board for the whole state and one for the largest 20 cities which would allow education to be governed by a few while cutting those in smaller cities out of the decision making process. Many fear this will lead to education without representation.

His sentiments are familiar and almost identically parallel Marc Tucker’s position voiced here. He supports a national/state school board to govern all aspects of education from cradle to career and claims; “ the United States will have to largely abandon the beloved emblem of American education: local control.” 

“In this plan, school funding would be the responsibility of the  state, not the locality, and the distribution of state funds for schools would  have nothing to do with the distribution of local property wealth. Thus the  governance roles of the local districts, as well as the federal government,  would be significantly decreased. Independent citizen governing boards would be  eliminated. The line of political accountability would run to mayors and  governors through their appointees. At the state level, the governance of the  schools, higher education, early child- hood education and youth services would  all be closely coordinated through the governance system. Though the role of the  federal government would be curtailed, there are some very important national  functions that must be served in a modern education system. I propose that a new  National Governing Council on Education be established, composed of  representatives of the states and of the federal government, to create the  appropriate bodies to oversee these functions…”

Educators and parents be smart about what groups like Achieve really intend to do with your child’s education and the Common Core initiative.

Walks like a duck, talks like a duck, supports a national Common Core curriculum like a schmuck. Don’t let them fool you.