If you have kids in school or you teach schoolchildren, you must remember those halcyon days of 2008, when the idea of a Common Core (CC) to direct and track all American children along educational pathways to careers or college began to take root. You remember when testing consultant David Coleman and the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Gene Wilhoit, visited Microsoft mogul Bill Gates in Seattle to persuade him to generously supplement future governmental funding of Common Core. And did Gates’ foundation ever deliver! It provided grants to write, implement, and finally propagandize CC totaling $384,605,464 as of June 2016. You also likely remember when later in 2008, a Gates-aided triumvirate consisting of the National Governors Association, CCSSO, and a big-business-led outfit called Achieve started plugging for federal backing for Common Core, which the Obama administration subsequently was thrilled to pledge as part of a...(Read Full Article)