who in continuing to attack those who oppose Common Core 
 
 The following appeared on the Facebook page of Gretchen Moran Laskas, whose son attends school in Fairfax County VA, and is crossposted here with her permission: 
 
 
 
 I've talked a bit about my son Brennan, and his struggles in school. This was a child he was what they call a "late bloomer. By the standards of the curriculum in place now, throughout most of his life, he was often considered a "failure" (let alone brilliant) by many people in the school system. I had a speech pathologist tell me that he would never learn to speak clearly because I hadn't enrolled him in early intervention speech before kindergarten. I had a case worker tell me to my face that I "need to accept that he isn't college material." I had a school counselor as late as eighth grade try and tell me that she was "legally barred" from putting him in honors classes. (That was a flat out lie and let's just say that was a HUGE mistake on her part.) 
 
 Now here's the thing. Brennan has every advantage you can think of. He's white. He's upper-middle class. He has hyper-involved parents. He is in one of the best school districts in the country. And most importantly, for every idiot who told me something like I mention above, he had TEN teachers, administrators, case workers, counselors and people in his life who worked 150% for him. And for that, I will be forever grateful. 
 
 But the tighter we make the noose, the more children like Brennan, who do NOT have those advantages will fall through the cracks. I don't fight the Common Core because I think my child is brilliant, but because I'm tired of these one size fits all educational solutions. We've done that all through Brennan's educational life, and I'm just not willing to take the chance that we're going to do a better job through Katja's just because it's being proposed through a Democratic President rather than a Republican one. This goes beyond politics -- this is about my kids. 
 
 So yes, I'm opposed. Not because I don't understand it. Not because I think it will make my children look bad. But because I know that children already look bad -- and by the time they might get it together and look good the way Brennan could, it might be too late. 
 
 Because Brennan is just fine, thank you. The kid who would never speak clearly just finished his role in the fall play. The kid who wasn't college material is very much going to college. And the kid who was legally barred from taking honors classes just got a 4.1 GPA this quarter while taking four IB classes. Maybe Arne Duncan should have a talk with him. ||||| By Michelle Malkin • November 18, 2013 02:28 AM 
 
 Ohhhh yes, the red blood underneath my brown skin is boiling. This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time. Race card-wielding Education Secretary Arne Duncan is nothing but a corrupt and bankrupt bigot. 
 
 We’ll get to his diatribe in a moment. But first, let’s step back for some perspective, reflection, and background on this pivotal moment in the battle against Common Core. 
 
 In January, I launched the first in my ongoing blog and column series on the perils and pitfalls of Common Core. Grass-roots parents, educators, analysts, and activists had been working hard at the local and state levels to turn back the top-down, Big Government/Big Business. I vowed at the beginning of the year to do everything in my power to spread the news of their work and to add my own voice because this battle is near and dear to my heart. It’s not just “business” for me. It’s personal. Here’s what I wrote on January 23 when I kicked off my project: 
 
 This year, I’ll be using my syndicated column and blog space to expose how progressive “reformers” — mal-formers — are corrupting our schools. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to provide you in-depth coverage of this vital issue that too often gets shunted off the daily political/partisan agenda. While the GOP tries to solve its ills with better software and communications consultants, the conservative movement — and America — face much larger problems. It doesn’t start with the “low-information voter.” It starts with the no-knowledge student. This is the first in an ongoing series on “Common Core,” the stealthy federal takeover of school curriculum and standards across the country. As longtime readers know, my own experience with this ongoing sabotage of academic excellence dates back to my early reporting on the Clinton-era “Goals 2000″ and “outcome-based” education and extends to my recent parental experience with “Everyday Math”. The good news is that grass-roots education and parental groups, brave teachers, and professors are fighting back. 
 
 And they’re winning. Big time. Over the last 10 months, Common Core has imploded under withering scrutiny from the tax-paying public, informed parents and educators, and more national media. States under both Republican and Democrat governors have adopted moratoria on the untested standards, withdrawn from the costly testing consortia, and retreated from partnerships with Common Core-promoting educational software data-miners like inBloom. 
 
 There’s much more to the fight than simple left-right divisions. The Common Core peddlers include meddling, Fed Ed Republicans from Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee to progressive billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates to Newscorp. media giant Rupert Murdoch and dozens of educational corporate special interests that stand to gain billions from the Common Core testing/textbook/data-mining boondoggle. 
 
 The Stop Common Core movement includes social conservatives, libertarians, teachers’ union members, charter school advocates, Catholic school principals, urban and suburban parents, New York City Democrats, Tea Party Republicans, homeschoolers, and concerned activists from all parts of the political spectrum concerned about the feds’ encroachment on family and student privacy. 
 
 As I’ve reported, the nationwide revolt against Common Core’s constitutionality, costs, dubious quality, threat to local control, and privacy invasions has proponents in a panic. They’ve resorted to demeaning dissenting parents and educators and abusing their power to stifle all challenges to their authority. 
 
 Now, along comes Obama education secretary Arne Duncan to inject poisonous race-baiting and class warfare into the debate. 
 
 U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.” Yes, he really said that. But he has said similar things before. What, exactly, is he talking about? In his cheerleading for the controversial Common Core State Standards — which were approved by 45 states and the District of Columbia and are now being implemented across the country (though some states are reconsidering) — Duncan has repeatedly noted that the standards and the standardized testing that goes along with them are more difficult than students in most states have confronted. 
 
 The preposterousness of Duncan’s tirade is outweighed only by its arrogance and falsehood. 
 
 As a brown-skinned suburban mom opposed to Common Core, I can tell you I’ve personally met moms and dads of ALL races, of ALL backgrounds, and from ALL parts of the country, who have sacrificed to get their kids into the best schools possible. They are outraged that dumbed-down, untested federal “standards” pose an existential threat to their excellent educational arrangements — be they public, private, religious, or homeschooling. 
 
 Duncan’s derision betrays the very control-freak impulses that drive Common Core. He presumes that only technocratic elites in Washington can determine what quality standards and curricula look like. He pretends that minority parents and students in inner-city charter and magnet schools with locally-crafted, rigorous classical education missions simply don’t exist. A textbook liberal racist, Duncan whitewashes all minority parents and educators who oppose Common Core out of the debate. And he condescendingly implies that the only reason “white suburban moms” object to Common Core is that their children are too dumb to score well on tests that are…a complete and utter mess. 
 
 As Brittany Corona noted earlier this summer, educators in New York and Kentucky outlined multiple problems with the assessments that Duncan champions: 
 
 Earlier this month, 49 New York principals wrote a letter to New York education commissioner John King explaining the problems teachers are finding with the Common Core assessments. While the principals state that they agree with Common Core in theory and are “are committed to helping New York realize the full promises of Common Core,” they write that its implementation has been haphazard: Because schools have not had a lot of time to unpack Common Core, we fear that too many educators will use these high stakes tests to guide their curricula, rather than the more meaningful Common Core Standards themselves. And because the tests are missing Common Core’s essential values, we fear that students will experience curriculum that misses the point as well. The New York principals reported problems with the assessments, including: Difficult and confusing questions (some on unrelated topics). 
 
 Unnecessarily long testing sessions—“two weeks of three consecutive days of 90-minute periods”—that require more “stamina for a 10-year-old special education student than of a high school student taking an SAT exam.” 
 
 Field-test questions that do not factor into a child’s score but take up time. 
 
 Confusing directions for the English language arts sessions. 
 
 Math problems that repeatedly assess the same skill. Multiple choice questions that ask the student to choose from the right answer and the “next best right answer.” The fact that teachers report disagreeing about which multiple-choice answer is correct in several places on the English language arts exams indicates that this format is unfair to students. Kentucky, the first state to implement Common Core, has experienced similar testing problems. Last month, the Kentucky Department of Education “discontinued scoring for all constructed-response questions in each of the four CCSS-aligned high school end-of-course exams.” Leaders said that the slow turnaround times for scoring and lack of diagnostic feedback on how scores are determined would cause the results to be delayed past the end of the school year. In two states in which the Common Core assessments have been tried, they have posed problems. Both New York and Kentucky should be red flags for states moving forward with Common Core implementation. 
 
 If Arne Duncan thinks his comments are going to tame and marginalize the Stop Common Core movement, he’s got another thing coming. As I noted earlier this month, Common Core is a sleeper ballot box issue that will shake both sides of the aisle for months and years to come. The Davids are exercising their freedoms of speech and association to beat back the deep-pocketed Goliaths at their schoolhouse doors. 
 
 Stop Common Core moms of all colors have done their homework, brought their arguments and evidence to their school boards and state legislatures, and acted responsibly to protect their children’s best interests. 
 
 By contrast, education demagogue Arne Duncan and his Big Government/Big Business cronies invoke race, employ divisive class rhetoric, and attack active, involved, and informed moms and their children as academic failures — while Common Core’s own failings pile up like Obamacare website 404s. 
 
 Arne Duncan, I will continue to do everything in my brown-skinned suburban mom power to keep your smug, grubby hands off my kids’ education. I know I’m not alone. 
 
 *** 
 
 Related: 
 
 New Facebook page — Moms Against Duncan 
 
 Colorado Department of Education cuts ties with inBloom 
 
 Previous: 
 
 Big news in fight against Common Core: InBloom-peddling Jefferson County CO superintendent resigns tonight; school board severs ties with inBloom 
 
 How NOT to argue with parents about Common Core 
 
 Jeb Bush’s latest Common Core snit fit 
 
 More parents stand up to educrats, face no-trespass and gag orders 
 
 Rotten to the Core: Jeb Bush’s Crony Republicans Against Higher Standards 
 
 Rotten to the Core, Part 1: Obama’s War on Academic Standards 
 
 Rotten to the Core, Part 2: Readin’, writin’ and deconstructionism 
 
 Rotten to the Core, Part 3: Lessons from Texas and the Growing Grassroots Revolt 
 
 Rotten to the Core, Part 4: The Feds’ Invasive Student Tracking Database 
 
 Time To Opt Out of Creepy Fed Ed Data-Mining Racket 
 
 Rotten to the Core: Reader feedback from the frontlines 
 
 My child’s Common Core-aligned Algebra book is crap 
 
 Rotten to the Core: Conservatives spearhead drive at RNC meeting to stop Common Core 
 
 Today: Twitter rally to stop Common Core 
 
 Who’s tracking your children? 
 
 *** 
 
 More resources: 
 
 Stop Common Core Twitter list 
 
 Fight Common Core 
 
 Truth in American Education 
 
 EAGNews Common Core tracker 
 
 Freedom Works – Stop Common Core resources 
 
 Heritage Foundation – Lindsey Burke – Reject Common Core 
 
 Home School Legal Defense Fund Association’s new white paper on Common Core 
 
 Do the math — Common Core = a massive, risky experiment on your kids 
 
 Related education posts: 
 
 Fuzzy math: A nationwide epidemic 
 
 Everyday Math = junk 
 
 Obama’s Sputter-nik moment: Cash for Education Clunkers 
 
 January 2005: NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, ACT II 
 
 February 2005: THE REVOLT AGAINST NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND 
 
 Stupid education fad of the day: “Mayan Math” ||||| Social media and even mainstream media appear poised to leap on Secretary Arne Duncan with both feet due to his swipe at white suburban moms. 
 
 The nearly universal sweeping outrage—some with a level of glee that must not be ignored—calls for close consideration itself. 
 
 First, rejecting Duncan’s comments about white suburban moms and Common Core critics is completely valid. I join hands with the education community in rejecting Duncan’s claims, his discourse, and his efforts to discredit a significant, credible, and growing resistance to CC that should not be trivialized and marginalized as Duncan does. 
 
 However, I find the magnitude and swiftness of the responses to this “white suburban moms” incident disappointing in the larger context of Duncan’s entire tenure as Secretary of Education. 
 
 In the first moments of Obama’s administration, Duncan has personified and voiced an education agenda that disproportionately impacts black, brown, and poor children in powerfully negative ways. And the entire agenda has been consistently cloaked in discourse characterizing these policies as the Civil Rights issue of the day. 
 
 As well, Duncan has perpetuated and embraced “no excuses” narratives while directly and indirectly endorsing education reform and policies that target and mis-serve high-poverty students, African American and Latina/o students, and English Language learners—charter schools, Teach for America, accountability based on standards and high-stakes testing. 
 
 Public commentary that highlights that education reform under Obama and Duncan fails the pursuit of equity in the context of race and class in the U.S. tends to fall on deaf ears. The same urgency witnessed in the responses to Duncan’s “white suburban moms” contrasts significantly from the silence surrounding challenges to Duncan’s discourse and policies that are classist and racist, policy designed for “other people’s children.” 
 
 The problem is not that educators and scholars have failed to identify that education reform under Obama and Duncan have continued and increased federal and state education policy creating two inequitable education systems—one for the white and affluent, another for minorities and the impoverished—because these important messages have been raised. 
 
 The problem is that rejecting education reform discourse and policy based on race and class concerns doesn’t resonate in the U.S. 
 
 As I have asked numerous times, what would the political and public support for TFA be if the organization was providing recent college graduates with no degrees in education and only five weeks of training to teach Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes filled with affluent white students? (A similar question about KIPP raises the same issue.) 
 
 Indirectly, from the response to Duncan’s “white suburban moms” comments, now we know. 
 
 The measure of a people must not come from how we flinch when the privileged suffer; the measure of a people must come from how we tolerate (or ignore) the conditions that impact the impoverished and the powerless. 
 
 If white outrage is the only outrage that counts in the U.S., any victory won from that outrage is no victory at all. 
 
 For Further Reading 
 
 First They Came For Urban Black and Latino Moms (For Arne Duncan), Jose Vilson 
 
 “the archeology of white people” 
 
 Advertisements ||||| Story highlights In remarks to CNN, Duncan apologizes for his choice of words 
 
 The "white suburban moms" comment came in a meeting with state education chiefs 
 
 He was talking about the Common Core State Standards, a controversial effort 
 
 Writes one commentator: "This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time" 
 
 Proving once again that any controversy will be intensified -- if not illuminated -- by random references to race, class, and gender, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has ignited a storm of protest by noting opposition from "white suburban moms" to one of his prized educational initiatives. 
 
 In a meeting with state education chiefs Friday, Duncan said some opposition to the Common Core State Standards -- a controversial effort to standardize education -- has come from parents displeased that test results have exposed local weaknesses. Duncan said he found it "fascinating" that opponents include "white suburban moms who -- all of a sudden -- (discovered that) their child isn't as bright as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were." 
 
 Duncan apologized for the remark Monday afternoon. 
 
 Speaking to CNN, he said: "My wording, my phrasing, was a little clumsy and I apologize for that." 
 
 Duncan said his point was that the goal is to prepare U.S. students for a "globally competitive work force" and to challenge education leaders to better explain to parents why higher standards are needed and what it takes to achieve them. 
 
 "I didn't say them perfectly, and I apologize for that," he added. "My point is that children from every demographic across this country need a well-rounded, world-class education and frankly we have challenges not just in our inner cities but in our suburban areas, too, and we need to have honest conversations about that." 
 
 The "white suburban moms" remark was first reported Friday by Politico, which later reported that Duncan backpedaled, saying that he "didn't say it perfectly." 
 
 The incident, if nothing else, is thrusting Common Core State Standards into red-hot glare of politically oriented social media. 
 
 Duncan has pushed the initiative, which seeks to establish a single set of educational standards for kindergarten through high school for math and English. 
 
 Advocates say the standards are essential to improve student skills, prepare them for college, and make the United States competitive with other nations. 
 
 But opponents say the standards instill students with elitist values and rob communities of local control of schools. 
 
 The remarks triggered a barrage of online comments, and a WhiteHouse.gov petition. As of noon Monday, 1,800 people had signed the petition to remove Duncan as secretary of education. A separate '"National Don't Send Your Child to School Day," protest over the standards has gained thousands of supporters on its Facebook page, though the number of children who were kept from school is unclear. 
 
 Conservative commentator and Common Core foe Michelle Malkin scolded Duncan. 
 
 "Ohhhh yes, the red blood underneath my brown skin is boiling. This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time. Race card-wielding Education Secretary Arne Duncan is nothing but a corrupt and bankrupt bigot," Malkin wrote. 
 
 Tweeted Randi Winegarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers: "Arne-if u are reading- you shld walk this back..very insensitive-and not right-moms care abt their kids!! 
 
 One Virginia-area mother posted a personal response on the left-leaning DailyKos arguing that Duncan missed the point. She said her own son was late to focus and achieve, and standardized testing would have marginalized him. 
 
 "I don't fight the Common Core because I think my child is brilliant, but because I'm tired of these one size fits all educational solutions," wrote Gretchen Moran Laskas. "So yes, I'm opposed. Not because I don't understand it. Not because I think it will make my children look bad. But because I know that children already look bad -- and by the time they might get it together and look good the way (my son) could, it might be too late." 
 
 A Department of Education official said in an e-mail that, in making his remarks, Duncan was encouraging state education chiefs to better communicate why higher standards are so important. 
 
 "The far right and far left have made up their minds," spokesman Massie Ritsch wrote. "But there's angst in the middle -- which includes many open-minded suburban parents -- that needs to be addressed." 
 
 "Arne -- a white suburban dad married to a white suburban mom, with two kids in public schools -- has always been clear that test scores are an imperfect measure of student achievement and school quality, but tests are an indicator nonetheless," Ritsch wrote. "And when that indicator conflicts with parents' notions of their child's abilities or their school's quality, it's understandable that some parents would be concerned." 
 
 The White House spokesman also defended Duncan, though Jay Carney said he had not seen all the comments. 
 
 "His point was that we need to be honest with kids and parents -- all can agree on that," Carney said on Monday.
– Education Secretary Arne Duncan—who upset a few people with his "white suburban moms" remark on Friday—fully back-peddled today and apologized for his "clumsy" phrasing, CNN reports. To recap, Duncan said he was fascinated by opposition to his plan for standardized testing because his opponents included "white suburban moms who—all of a sudden—[discovered that] their child isn't as bright as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were." Well, his new opponents include people who aren't white, suburban, or moms—and a few who are: "This Obama educrat has stepped in it. Big time. Race card-wielding Education Secretary Arne Duncan is nothing but a corrupt and bankrupt bigot," writes conservative commentator Michelle Malkin. "Arne-if u are reading- you shld walk this back..very insensitive-and not right-moms care abt their kids!!" tweets Randi Winegarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "I don't fight the Common Core because I think my child is brilliant, but because I'm tired of these one size fits all educational solutions," writes Gretchen Moran Laskas, a Virginia-area mom, at Daily Kos. Furman University professor PL Thomas blogs that he is upset over the overwhelming reaction to Duncan's "white moms" remark, when Duncan's agenda "disproportionately impacts black, brown, and poor children in powerfully negative ways." Education Department spokesman Massie Ritsch rose to Duncan's defense over the testing policy, Common Core State Standards, which is designed to make US students more competitive. "The far right and far left have made up their minds," Ritsch writes. "But there's angst in the middle—which includes many open-minded suburban parents—that needs to be addressed."