A Yahoo! News report said that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believed that the US needs to adopt a rigorous education programs in schools on math, English language arts and literacy. The Common Core Standards Initiative is intended to retain the current math curricula that has long discouraged students in pursuing future careers that require math-related skills.
Gates reasoned his latest advocacy to Power Players, "America is the land of equal opportunity, and the reality is we're not delivering on that promise when low-income households end up in public schools that don't educate their kids well."
According to its website, Common Core Standards Initiative, which is being sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) essentially seeks to streamline education standards across the US into a single set of guidelines that aim to prepare high school students to enter the workforce or enroll in credit-bearing courses at two or four-year programs in universities or colleges.
Common Core critics have argued that the new standards were equivalent to a takeover of the national education program by the federal government. Gates said the critics, which Yahoo! News said are several teacher groups and the tea party, actually helped put gears for policy makers to look into the current education initiative for them to make the changes should it be necessary.
"If they want the Congress to pass a bill saying, ‘They'll never tell us what to do,' that's fine. That won't stop the idea that state by state they should make the decision on behalf of their students to have high standards. In some locations, they have a legitimate point, that the number of supports being put in place, and in a few cases even the speed need-we need to go back and look at it. That's a very different question than saying we shouldn't move towards the Common Core."
