A group of citizens, and one state lawmaker, have filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of North Dakota’s participation in the Smarter Balanced Consortium, the group charged with implementing Common Core standards in states contracting with it. The group includes Bismarck-based activist Steve Cates, Rep. Bob Skarphol (R-Tioga), Catherine Cartier, and Charles Cartier. “The suit asserts…
Steve Cates: A Timeline For Common Core
Did the Common Core Standards appear magically out of thin air? Unlikely. “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow…
Steve Cates: The Core Of Common Core
The American political left has always wanted more and more control of education through the centralization of power to the Federal Government. In the early 1990s they tried to push Outcome Based Education on the nation but people figured out what the real deal was and it was rejected. But the leftist/socialist/progressives just keep on…
Steve Cates Column: Chamber Of Commerce Meeting On Common Core Disappoints
The meeting held in Bismarck on the evening of March 27th was claimed by the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) to be to discuss the “facts and fallacies of Common Core” according to their meeting announcement. How accurate is this claim? In town halls, school board meetings, and a majority of open informational meetings the public…