New education standards may force conservatives and Christians to create their own parallel society, according to radio host Sandy Rios.
Rios, host of Sandy Rios In The Morning on American Family Association radio, spoke last week with William Estrada from the Home School Legal Defense Association about Common Core State Standards, the learning guidelines now in place in public schools across the country. The pair lamented that if conservative and Christian students do not participate in schools that require the standards -- home schooled children, for example -- they will be completely alienated from society.
Common Core State Standards have been adopted by more than 40 states to make sure students in different parts of the country are held to the same measures. The standards were developed by a bipartisan group of governors and educators, and they continue to have fans and critics on both sides of the political aisle.
“Our children may find themselves in a situation where they cannot function, they cannot be accepted into colleges and universities, they can’t get scholarships, they can’t get a ticket to get into, you know, just living life, if they are not pulled into the Common Core if it continues on its current trajectory,” Rios told listeners on the fundamentalist Christian station.
She continued: “The only way I can see us even surviving is to develop a parallel society. I’m projecting, but honestly that is the truth. A parallel economy, parallel job opportunities and I just don’t think -- that’s not where we want to go. We need to stop Common Core.”
The Common Core State Standards have increasingly become fodder for right-wing conspiracy theories. In March, Alabama Tea Party leader Terry Batton said at a state Senate Education Committee hearing that the Common Core standards promote “acceptance of homosexuality, alternate lifestyles, radical feminism, abortion, illegal immigration and the redistribution of wealth.”
While President Barack Obama has supported the idea of the standards, saying they are “rigorous” and “raise expectations,” he hasn't said the words "Common Core" in any speeches, an apparent nod to growing Common Core controversy..
(Hat Tip, Right Wing Watch.)