Breitbart Accuses Betsy DeVos, Trump Education Secretary, of Supporting Common Core

Breitbart news accuses President Elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Education, as a supporter of Common Core. Amway co-founder Betsy DeVos is a billionaire known for her philanthropy. She's also a grandmother and a person who has been involved in educational groups and causes for a long time.

Trump promised to do away with common core, which is a popular opinion among his conservative, rural, blue collar base. This from Breitbart.com:

"Anti-Common Core grassroots groups of parents and teachers urged Trump to abandon DeVos as his choice, citing her support for the education reform policies of pro-Common Core Jeb Bush and her influence through the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) in favor of Common Core.

"Karen Braun who writes at Stop Common Core in Michigan noted:GLEP is a strong supporter of the Common Core and its continued implementation in Michigan. They are part of the Michigan Coalition for High Student Standards which opposes SB 826 to Repeal and Replace Common Core, science, social studies, and aligned assessments with pre-common core Massachusetts standards. Stop Common Core in Michigan believes there is a high correlation between candidates who accept the GLEP endorsement and their future votes on legislation. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/23/trump-announces-gop-mega-donor-betsy-devos-education-secretary/

DeVos' own website denies that she supports Common Core, though she admits having belonged to some groups that supported its adoption in 2008.

"Q: There's been a lot of talk about Common Core. Can you provide some straight talk on this topic?

Certainly. I am not a supporter-period.I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control. When Governors such as John Engler, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Pence were driving the conversation on voluntary high standards driven by local voices, it all made sense.

Have organizations that I have been a part of supported Common Core? Of course. But that's not my position. Sometimes it's not just students who need to do their homework. However, along the way, it got turned into a federalized boondoggle.

Above all, I believe every child, no matter their zip code or their parents' jobs, deserves access to a quality education." http://betsydevos.com/qa/

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is an educational initiative in the United States that details what K–12 students should know in English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade. The initiative is sponsored by such people as Bill Gates, and seeks to establish consistent educational standards across the states as well as ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or to enter the workforce.

"Common Core seeks to integrate all subjects with each other," says one common core critic. "English becomes part of math, and science becomes part of history. This may sound cool on paper, but in reality it leaves many kids in the dust."

"Children who excel at math become discouraged because they are graded on their ability to do English instead of math. Children who love history become uninvolved because they have to use math to prove some theory. Literature is being stripped from English classes. I’m not kidding. Literary fiction is being replaced by whatever political/environmental/organic-only baloney articles the teachers wants them to read. Besides this, the math is dumbed way down."

"Supposedly being able to talk about how to do a problem is more important than being able to solve many different kinds of difficult math exercises. We are not raising the next generation of scientists and engineers here. To make matters worse, the Common Core angle of teaching makes it far easier for teachers to infiltrate their political indoctrination of future voters - hopefully voters who will support the unions."

Common Core has been much criticized for establishing national standards across a diverse nation.