THE CLEBURNE NEWS, Thursday, January 9, 2014 • 3
OPINION/EDITORIAL
Legislature could weigh in on Common Core The 2014 Legislative Session begins next week. The session starts early in the fourth year of the quadrennium because it is an election year. Legislators want to come in and get out early so that they can go home and campaign. Usually legislatures do not do much other than pass the budgets in a campaign year session. They especially do not try to tackle any controversial issues that could stir up any ire with voters. However, this current group of legislators will tackle anything controversial as long as it has a right wing slant to it. It would be hard to think of any major conservative issue they have not addressed in the first three years of their super Republican majority reign. In years one and two they passed a stringent anti immigration bill as well as dismantled the AEA. Last year, this bevy of reactionary elephants passed an anti abortion bill. They also adhered to the NRA demands to affirm gun rights laws in Alabama. The legislation allowed people to carry guns openly even into their parking lots at work. The Business Council of Alabama adamantly opposed this provision. However, the NRA prevailed. They enacted a controversial private school voucher bill that allows parents of children enrolled in “failing” public schools to take a tax credit for tuition they pay to private schools. They revamped the state’s Medicaid program from the current fee-for-service system into a managed care program. The Governor’s prize victory came when he got his wish to construct an $85 million luxury lodge and convention center at the location of the Gulf Shores
State Park. It will be a joint public/private partnership. The state will own the Steve The project Flowers property. will be funded with BP money from the gulf oil spill. They also voted to allow Inside The Statehouse Alabamians to make a limited amount of beer for personal consumption without a license or fee. We were the last state to allow home brewing. One issue that has remained on the back burner is the Common Core State Education Standard. This Common Core concept spells out specific expectations of what students should know at the end of every grade. It goes from kindergarten through high school. Common Core covers the entire spectrum of learning, including reading, writing, listening, vocabulary and mathematics. It addresses the fundamentals of these subjects. Students are tested and asked details about what they have learned. Conservatives around the country have come out stringently against Common Core. Some Tea Party activists have decried it as being developed by “extreme leftists.” Two extreme right-wingers, Glenn Beck and Phyllis Schafley, have attacked the effort as a dangerous threat from the Obama administration. However, other conservatives, like former Governors Jeb Bush of Florida and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas,
are in support of Common Core. These new standards have the endorsement of major business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving grants to support Common Core’s implementation. Some opponents are implying that Common Core is a Washington based idea. Beck and Schafley have stated as much. However, that is not factual. The Common Core concept grew up from the states. Government and state education people developed the standards. State school professionals and legislators were concerned that an alarming number of students entering college were having to take remedial math and English classes before they could take classes for college credit. The federal government was not involved. Today, 45 states have voluntarily adopted the math and English standards. Some critics say that Common Core would nationalize education. Proponents counter that the standards are goals and not mandates. There are no set requirements made upon educators. Teachers choose their own books and suggested reading lists. Two state led groups are preparing the annual assessments that will be matched to the Common Core Standards. They plan to have them ready for the 201415 school year. It will be interesting to see if the GOP legislature will weigh in on this issue. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached at www. steveflowers.us
Start out the New Year with laughter, good wishes
I should have a happy year full of fun if the first half-hour of the 2014 is indicative of what is to come. I attended a friend’s New Year’s Eve party, which started at 6:30 p.m. and did not end until 12:30 a.m. Six of us friends, all of whom are grandmothers, met in the hostess’s home in Hokes Bluff. We all pitched in for the evening meal – chili, a big bowl of tossed salad, chips, dips, and way too many desserts. I was in charge of the games. For those who are party planners – such as parents wanting to entertain children or such as friends who want an evening of fun – feel free to repeat any of the following games I found that kept us well entertained until it was time to see in the New Year. The first game was one I had played at a staff holiday party for us teachers at Trinity Christian Academy earlier in December. Each of us placed a paper plate on our head and drew a Christmas scene at the direction of the host. I adapted that game and asked my friends to draw a New Year’s scene with a baby, the words “Happy New Year,” and fireworks – all without the participants seeing what they were doing. The results were hilarious, and the winner was determined by whose drawings were most recognizable. The second game was one I that allowed friends to get to know each other better. The guests wrote down
one fact about their lives that no one else knew. Then, I read the facts while Sherry the guests wrote down who they Kughn thought had written the fact. We learned that someone’s parents married only Sherry-Go-Round three months after meeting, someone else had always longed to play the piano, one of us once kissed “The Fonz,” and one among us grew up near a neighbor who was a “lady of the evening.” Even longtime friends learned new facts about each other. Third, we played the old standby – charades. However, I tailored it for the holiday. We acted out phrases that summed up general New Year’s resolutions. The guests easily guessed “lose weight,” and “read more,” but they struggled to guess “improve vocabulary and “volunteer more.” This game can be tailored to guessing songs related to Valentine’s Day, acting out items related to St. Patrick’s Day, or naming famous Americans for The Fourth of July. Fourth, we each took a pink and a white slip of paper.
We asked a question about someone in the room by writing the question on the pink slip, and we answered the question on the white slip. I mixed them up and allowed each guest to read an unmatched question and answer. The results were funny. Last, we drew pictures of scenes from movie titles. I displayed the scenes in front of the group, and we all guessed which movie each “artist” had selected. So, after all of our convivial activities, which included taking pictures of us with each other’s cell phones, we turned on the television and watched the crystal ball drop in New York City’s Times Square. That meant it was only 11 p.m. Central Time, which gave us another hour to talk and laugh. We welcomed the New Year by toasting our hopes for prosperity and happiness during the upcoming year. Glasses full of sparkling grape juice clinked together, and sounds of firecrackers popped outside of the window. That, my dear readers, is how to make a New Year’s Eve party last for six hours and remain fun from beginning to end. I wish I could place all of the fun that we had in a bottle and share it with my readers who have read and/or responded so kindly to my column during 2013. I wish all of you a Happy New Year and look forward to sharing more of Sherry-go-round during 2014. Email Sherry at sherrykug@hotmail.com
Affordable Care Act is hurting us, not helping
Led by President Obama, progressive Democrats are making “income inequality” the cornerstone of campaigns leading to November elections. In his speech on December 4, President Obama said, “the relentless decades-long trend that I want to spend some time talking about today, and that is, a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility that has jeopardized middle-class America’s basic bargain that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead. I believe this is the defining challenge of our time: making sure our economy works for every working American.” No one is opposed to “making sure our economy works for every working American.” However, President Obama voices a common misconception as his premise: “middle-class America’s basic bargain that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead.” Fifty years ago President Johnson declared a “war on poverty” and signed legislation progressives promised would end poverty in America through government programs. Today the poverty rate is essentially the same as it was in 1965. President Obama spoke of the “decades-long trend” that
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began in the mid-60s when progressives passed massive legislation that has cost Daniel $15 trillion, Gardner taxpayers but has had no effect on reducing poverty. American history is filled with stories My Thoughts of people rising out of poverty. Some through education, others through connections, and still others working in companies that offered opportunities for advancement. The notable thing about all these success stories is people advanced from one standard of living to higher standards of living by getting better jobs. In other words, it’s not enough to work hard if you are working in a job that offers no chance of advancing. Currently 46 million Americans are living in poverty as defined by the government. According to a recent annual Census report, in 2011 the poverty rate for those who worked full time was only 2.8 percent, but the poverty rate for those working less than full time was 16.3 percent. The poverty rate was 32.9 percent for those who didn’t work at least one week in the year. The key to helping people get out of poverty is helping
those who can work get jobs, and helping those with parttime jobs get full-time jobs with opportunities for advancement. The goal should not be to reduce the inequality of income gap, but to help those at the lower end get on career paths leading to more rewarding jobs. President Obama’s own hallmark legislation, the Affordable Care Act, which progressive Democrats promised would provide affordable healthcare for all Americans, is projected to cost taxpayers trillions more dollars. So far the ACA has caused more than 6 million people to lose health insurance while the highest estimates say only 2-million people have signed up for health insurance. Businesses are cutting full-time workers back to part-time status, and economists predict tens of millions more will lose health insurance when businesses drop employer-provided health benefits due to ACA incentives. In essence, the ACA, passed solely by Washington’s elite progressive Democrats, is costing workers hours, jobs, and benefits while failing to help the uninsured get affordable insurance. Maybe we’d be better off if progressive Democrats stopped trying to help us? Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at Daniel@ DanLGardner.com, or visit his website at http://www.danlgardner.com Feel free to interact with him on the ClarionLedger feature blog site blogs.clarionledger.com/dgardner/
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