Sigh.

As anyone who knows me or has read my commentaries already understands, I have placed a great deal of faith in the Common Core Standards – and the tests aligned to those standards.  I have hoped they will both prompt more rigorous academic standards and provide a meaningful measure of student achievement across our nation’s public schools.

I may have been wrong.

The problem is not the standards or the tests.  The problem is (prepared to be shocked) with the politicians (double shock!) who want to dupe trusting taxpayers.

The Washington Post, in an October 3rd article entitled “Confusing Ohio test results are latest effort to unravel Common Core promise”, noted that Ohio has found the perfect answer to the abysmal academics outcomes highlighted in last year’s first year of standardized tests aligned to the Common Core standards: pencil whip more students towards proficiency by redefining “success”.

Feel free to read the depressing details by following the link below.  You may, thereafter, want to take a shower.

Confusing Ohio test results are latest effort to unravel Common Core’s promise

Whether it is simply no longer counting the unemployed as being unemployed, promising government benefits that cannot possibly be provided, or ignoring the inconvenient details of our latest foreign misadventure, one really starts to understand why Americans have so little faith in our politicians.  Elected officials are, of course, required to keep certain information secret to ensure our national security or to avoid allowing any advantage to those who would deliberately harm our national interests.  This is an allowable level of duplicity.

However, those lies that are told for the sake of simple political expediency are not allowable – and certainly not forgivable – and we have all more than had our fill of this nonsense.