2016 Ballot Question: Stop Common Core MA

Hi Steve, 

Sorry it's taken me a couple of weeks to get back to you! I was hoping we would have a definitive signature signing schedule to provide for you but it seems that our weeks are planned as we go. The best resource for your readership to find locations where they can sign would be to point them to the www.endcommoncorema.com website where each weekend it is updated with signing locations. 

You can read the petition there as well. The deadline for signature submission is November 18, 2015 and the required number of certified signatures is around 69,000 in order for the question to be placed on the ballot. 

End Common Core MA

Also on the website, your readers can find who their town Captain is if they are interested in volunteering. Patrick Touhey is Franklin's captain. http://www.endcommoncorema.com/volunteer

This is a grassroots effort to allow the voters of MA to decide if Common Core standards are in the best interest of our superior educational system. I, along with Moira Keating and Janice Dunne, are members of Medway Matters: End Common Core MA. 

I personally got involved in this effort when our school district was considering participating in the PARCC pilot test, at which time I had no idea MA had adopted Common Core. These national standards were implemented back in 2010 with a Race To The Top grant from the federal government, with no input or review process. Experts state that Common Core lowers our existing standards and will not prepare our students for STEM based degrees in college.  

Thanks  

Kelly O'Rourke