The Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition today released a copy of a Letter to the Editor sent to Daily Journal Editor Lloyd Gray by Senator Michael Watson. In the letter, Watson strongly condemns the Daily Journal’s biased reporting on Common Core, specifically questioning a recent report by Daily Journal writer Chris Kieffer. READ HERE
Kieffer writes that “Much of the criticism has been tied to President Barack Obama’s embrace of” Common Core. In the article, Kieffer gives no other information about those questioning Common Core, nor does he give an account of an opposing view.
Watson writes to the Daily Journal that the lack of honest information is “lazy reporting” and “hampers the ability of your readers to make informed decisions with facts.”
The letter as submitted follows:
For many years, the Daily Journal has been supportive of most everything the Mississippi Department of Education has done, or wanted to do, including trying to kill recently passed charter school legislation. The newspaper has likewise supported the recent push for the unproven, untested change in standards to the new Common Core.
While one would expect bias and allegiance to the Education Department from the Daily Journal based on past performance, it is disappointing that editors would allow or encourage reporters to propagate outright fabrications through lazy reporting.
In a recent article (Oxford Meeting Addresses Core Concerns–August 21,2013), Daily Journal writer Chris Kieffer covers the Mississippi Department of Education’s public relations tour in support of Common Core and the stop in Oxford. However, his “report” does little more than assist education bureaucrats ongoing attempts to smear anyone who dare question their authority.
Kieffer not only excludes the numerous concerns and unanswered questions of parents, teachers and legislators in his “report”, he inaccurately characterizes those who want answers as nothing more than President Obama “haters”.
To quote Kieffer: “the Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition has made statements questioning the Common Core and other states have considered discarding them. Much of the criticism has been tied to President Barack Obama’s embrace of them.”
That is Kieffer’s entire treatment of those of us who have concerns. His lack of inclusion of those concerns is lazy, dishonest, biased and it is shameful.
The truth is there are many legitimate unanswered questions about Common Core, how it was adopted and why, what level of authority and control the Dept. of Education is handing over to the federal government, and whether the Common Core standards are really about higher expectations and will give Mississippi students the best chance at future success. The Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition has stepped up to demand answers. We hope all parents and teachers who have concerns will join us in that effort. Our children deserve no less.
It is expected that bureaucrats at the Department of Education would try to turn disagreement into something as trivial as a political dislike of the President. But, for the Daily Journal to knowingly mislead its readers with this type of “reporting” is extremely deceptive. It hampers the ability of your readers to make informed decisions with facts. It reduces the Daily Journal to a tool of the Department of Education to be used to ‘shape’ public opinion through exclusion of useful information that tells the whole story.
If the Daily Journal wishes to enter into a collaborative effort to act as the Mississippi Department of Education’s public relations arm then that is a decision for the owners and editors. But, you should at least have the boldness and courage to let that fact be known before publishing articles that purports to be honest and unbiased news.
In the meantime, if you wish to fully and accurately report the issues surrounding Common Core in Mississippi, you will find many of the Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition’s questions here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/161607212/MSCC-Common-Core-Letter-to-MDE-Aug-19-2013
Maybe the Daily Journal reporters will even consider asking a few themselves, next time.
Senator Michael Watson (R-Pascagoula), Policy Chairman-Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition
MSCC Press Release
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Mississippi PEP 
I can tell the Daily Journal that the Senators involved in the Conservative Coalition are NOT the only ones concerned about Common Core!!! MANY parents and grandparents who are finding out about it AFTER THE FACT, are very upset that it was put in to Mississippi schools with no advance notification to parents or most anyone else who might have wanted to have a say in it! I am researching Common Core and what I am finding is NOT GOOD! Many states including Georgia which had experience with Common Core are now trying to get out of it!! They have good reasons for doing so! And yes, after I posted in our local Grenada Speaks Facebook page, I too was accused of having a problem with it because the President was pushing it. It seems that with this Administration if you have a problem with any of his POLICIES and question them, those on the left feel that it could not possibly be about his POLICIES but must be about race! Good grief people! Our skin color is the LEAST important thing about any of us! God created us all…there is ONE race…the HUMAN RACE with many ethnicities, all of which are precious to Him! Common Core is NOT a good educational program and I am against it because it is bad for our children and it was rushed in giving the state little time to decide and basically blackmailed into accepting it or they would lose some funding. This was done at a time when all states need all of the funding they can get. So what happened? An educational program RUN BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT THE STATES was pushed in with no advance warning…..no school board meetings about it….no allowing the public advance notice…..it was done like the government always does things….silently….hidden in the dark….with promises made that will not be kept! It is advertised as a STATE-LED program….that is not true! They pushed that through by linking it to a trade organization in Washington, D.C. called the NGO(National Governors Organization…which there is little corresponding with the Governors on anything by this organization! but they needed to make every state think they had a say in the curriculum! That is not true…The states have as little as 15% input in this curriculum! The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has the rest! I don’t know about you but just this last year alone, I think the federal government has proven they aren’t capable of getting much of anything right! So now we are going to hand over our children to them to educate????? This is one grandmother who is NOT! The states have always had the right to make educational decisions about their children….well for a little money many states including Mississippi has sold their children out! But there are parents and grandparents who are learning about Common Core and we will have a VOICE! I applaud each Senator who sent this letter and asked these questions! THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN ASKED BEFORE THE PROGRAM WAS APPROVED!!!