Let me tell you a story.
There once was a state that had a long history of terrible Superintendents of Public Instruction. It was also a state with a booming industry of privatized, for-profit prisons — but I digress.
Over the years, realization about this terribleness slowly grew among the people. Businesses, service industries, and pretty much anyone who came to rely on human interaction in a professional capacity discovered that glorifying standardized testing while removing all funding for actual learning was not a sustainable model.
And into this realization came an election cycle.
One candidate was like, “Our standards are too high**! No standards for anyone!”
One candidate was like, “Our funding is too low!”
And one candidate — the Evil Incumbent — was like, “I will blog offensive hyperbole anonymously while never taking a principled stand on the actual issues!”
Here, dear readers, is where the story gets really interesting.
In the primary election, Evil Incumbent was actually defeated.
But replaced with someone even worse.
So now the people are left to choose.
There is one candidate who supports adequate school funding, who supports educational standards but believes standardized tests should not be used as the sole determinant of mastering those standards, and who supports career and technical education (which often leads to skilled and productive career paths with or without the student attending a 4-year college).
And there is one candidate who supports the abolition of state standards, who would allow for the diversion of public funds into private schools, and who actively worked against anti-discrimination policies for LGBTQ students.
And there are still a lot of people who — while they see the difference — don’t see the importance. Won’t vote. Don’t care.
That last paragraph is where I come in.
** Okay, so she was really like, “These standards are an overreach of the federal government! Bad Obama!” even though, you know, Arizona has been a voluntary participant in Common Core. But I was going for a theme here.
