That is because they want NO ONE taught outside their model. Private schools and homeschoolers will be forced to follow this curriculum if they want their students to pass any of the nationally normed tests (SAT, ACT, etc.). Colleges will have to modify their entrance requirements/tests to align as well. The kindergartners of today that I teach will be completely indoctrinated into the system by the time they graduate high school in 2025. 12 more years of this! Scary...

Oh, and I also recently got an email from our union president urging us to sign a petition to put a stop to testing for a few years while we implement CC. Brilliant move on their part. Don't do any testing for a few years, then bring out a new test aligned with Common Core. The students will miraculously score higher on this new, dumbed down test and the educational establishment can herald CC as a successful program. Meanwhile, our students can't read anything but how to manuals and can't do algebra...

I teach in an upper middle class suburb of San Diego. My school has consistently scored in the top 10% of the state since the testing craze started. It was bad enough when we had to start "teaching to the test" a few years ago because our scores flat lined (despite what the politicians in Sacramento say it is mathematically impossible for EVERY child to score above the 50th percentile...). But, now, we have spent a great deal of time this year looking at CC and trying to figure out how we can maintain our high standards and still follow these standards. Of course, all we hear from the higher ups is how great this is. But looking at CC closely shows we are going to have to dumb down our current high standards!

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association is part of the Methodist Church. It lost its tax exempt status because they refused to allow two lesbian couples marry on their property. Those pesky facts get in the way of your propaganda. As I said, cases like this can open the door to other religious properties losing their tax exempt status because of gay marriages being denied and couples suing. If I thought the radical gays would stop their harassment of Churches and just be happy having marriages at non religious sites there would be no issue. But, that is not their agenda. Getting the government out of marriage altogether takes the power struggle away from both the radical gays and the radical conservative Christians.

But it is happening, on a limited basis already. See this article in the NYT. Which, by the way, thinks its great that a Church owned property lost it's tax exempt status for refusing to perform a gay marriage. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/nyregion/18grove.html Cases like this could be just the beginning for many Churches that refused to perform gay marriages. And, I'm not a Church goer myself, but I strongly believe in the Religious Freedom this country was founded on.

When Churches are threatened to lose their tax exempt status because they won't perform same sex marriages that is a problem. The government should NOT be determining Church doctrine and not punish Churches for beliefs that do not follow current politically correct trends. Deace's column suggests the problem with getting government out of the marriage business is all the legal ramifications of current marriages. Convert those marriages to civil unions and the problem is solved. Lets move on to solving some real problems like a failed education system and overwhelming debt!

Domestic Parnerships for everyone. That solves the issue of taxes, custody, visitation, etc. Any two consenting adults who want to enter into a contractural agreement for the purpose of establishing a domestic partnership. That is all the State needs to concern itself with. Then the individual churches can be free to decide what Marriage is to them. I have no problem with a couple of gay guys who want the same tax and insurance benefits my husband and I have. I do have a problem with those same two gay guys forcing a Priest or Pastor to perform a Marriage against his doctrine.

Except the Mexicans are descended from the Spaniards who colonized Mexico. They wiped out the native Aztecs. So, they have no more right to the land than the English speaking people.

Which, if you read my original post, is exactly why I would like the opportunity to teach at a school that is more conservative minded. I get out voted on just about EVERY issue in the public school I teach at. Conservative teachers have NO voice in the system, from the curriculum to the discipline policy. School choice would allow those different voices to be heard. You can be assured that my views on most issues are not welcome in the front office, the district office or the union office - wherever education policy is set. That is what I mean by retaliation. Not even giving our voices a chance to be heard. I hope you do give equal time to alternatives unlike my daughter's government teacher who only belittled her ideas!

Birth control is not the same as abortion. I support the use of birth control. I do not support killing innocent babies when the birth control doesn't work. I also support legal immigration but I do not support people who cross our borders illeagally and break our laws. I do support legalization of drugs but I also support harsh penalties for people who drive impaired. Marriage should be left up to individual churches, not the government, The government should issue domestic partnerships for any couple. Freedom requires RESPONSIBILITY. Statists want niether!