Roy F. McCampbell's Blog

First a disclaimer.

In order to pay for college for my two kids, like most but the 1%, we had to borrow money.

Educational Credit Management Services had a monopoly on the repayment of the debt. It’s not like a home loan where you can change who handles the mortgage.

ECMS was awful. Incompetent. You couldn’t talk to anybody. We had an automatic payment system so we never missed a payment. Never were late. Yet they would screw up our account numbers. Since we had two loans we had two accounts. They would credit all payments to one and none to the other.

Unraveling their mess was the essence of frustration.

Luckily we are done with them.

But we hate them.

The stories in today’s New York Times shows them to be hate-worthy.

Like this one.

Anthony Cody reviews his own sharp criticism of teachers’ unions during the past year for their support of the Common Core standards in 2013.

Cody questions why teachers have no one to support them when they question the validity of the Common Core.

He doubts that a one-year moratorium on high-stakes testing of the Common Core will matter much.

In a column that he cites, he wrote:

In effect, the Common Core tests will refresh NCLB’s indictment of public schools and teachers, with supposedly scientific precision.

Teachers – and union leaders — may feel as if they should get on board, to try to steer this process. However, I think this is a ship of doom for our schools. I think its effect will be twofold. It will create a smoother, wider, more easily standardized market for curriculum and technology. This will, in turn, promote the standardization of curriculum and…

Governor Jerry Brown is certainly the most interesting and thoughtful state leader on education.

In 2009, when he was state attorney general, he wrote a blistering rebuke to Arne Duncan in opposition to Race to the Top.

He has consistently opposed the overemphasis on standardized testing.

In 2011, he vetoed legislation that didn’t go far enough to stop the misuse of test scores.

Earlier this year the state suspended state testing to prepare for Common Core testing, defying Duncan’s specific order to continue state testing.

Several days ago, Brown blasted state and national standards and tests, saying that learning was highly personal and individual. He said that neither Washington nor Sacramento should play a large role in telling teachers what to teach and what students should learn. He is especially critical of standardized testing.

This is all amazing, not only because a governor with a national profile is saying…