Contact: Brit Schiel
DrHoltz4Kids@Kidservative.org
(Beloit, WI) – Dr. Lowell Holtz, candidate for Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced today his plan to completely eliminate Common Core from Wisconsin’s education curriculum. His plan is designed to be implemented immediately, and does not require time or bureaucratic posturing to implement.
“Originally, Common Core was marketed across America as a Corvette, and what we received was a manure spreader,” said Holtz. “Governors, legislators, educators and citizens all across the country were misled through high pressure marketing of the Common Core standards. We were promised one thing and given another.
As a school superintendent, I saw firsthand how former-President Obama’s administration sought to implement a one-size-fits-all, top-down curriculum scheme that increased government bureaucracy and heightened the risk of politicized curriculum decisions, instead of improving student performance.
The state exam based on Common Core standards really did not give us a clear picture of how our kids were competing academically, so as superintendent, I wrote a grant so my students could take the international PISA-OECD test. I wanted them to be able to compete not only on a local level, but an international level as well.
The current Forward exam is based on the Common Core. This forces district administrators, who want their students to do well on the test, to align their curriculum with Common Core standards. By working with the Governor and legislators, Common Core can be eliminated immediately. If we truly believe it is bad for our kids, we can’t afford to wait any longer.
This would require changing the current Forward exam, which DPI administers to our students, and giving our teachers and parents a different test to use. This can be done with little or no additional cost to our taxpayers. While such a decision might lead to some break-up fees, regaining local control of curriculum decisions should outweigh that cost. Changing to a prescriptive test, such as the MAP test, returns control for curriculum development to the district level, while at the same time providing our teachers with timely information about how their students are learning.
As Superintendent of Public Instruction, I will expect higher performance goals from our schools, while at the same time fight to keep control of our schools in the hands of our families, teachers, students and local communities,” he concluded.
