Concerned Parents Speaking Out Against Common Core

TYLER COUNTY, W.Va. — A group of concerned parents who stand against Common Core in North Central West Virginia are speaking out against the standards.

Bonnie Henthorne, the Tyler County Board of Education President and concerned parent, said the arc of Common Core’s story is similar to No Child Left Behind.

“When No Child Left Behind came out, the schools all thought it was great right at the beginning,” Henthorne said. “Year-after-year-after-year it became this ‘oh we have to get out of it. It’s terrible. We’ll do anything to get out of it.’ And now we see the same thing happening with Common Core.”

Henthorne said looking at Common Core through the lens of a parent is where much of her dislike comes from.

“Speaking as a parent, and that’s who I tend to listen to, the parents and the community in general, people are extremely frustrated,” she said. “They are angry. They are upset. And they want a different direction for their kids.”

In an effort to try to make West Virginia’s Next Generation standards more transparent, the State Board of Education posted the standards online. But Henthorne said they want more accountability at the state level.

“People are frustrated, and they want something different,” she said. “And they want some accountability from the state-level. This isn’t about the teachers and it’s not about the students. It’s forcing these mandates down onto the counties that they have no hopes of meeting.”

Henthorne said the intentions of No Child Left Behind and Common Core don’t matter at this point.

“This is, again, another failed attempt to do the same thing again,” she said. “We’ve jumped into something that has been promised as a magic pill to cure the education woes, and it’s just the same thing over and over again. We’re losing a whole generation of kids.”