Pro-Common Core television ads funded by a coalition of business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable hit the airwaves nationally on Sunday, signaling Big Business’s increasing determination to fight back against Tea Party groups who have made the repeal of Common Core their top priority in recent months.
POLITICO has the story:
The campaign — a major ad buy that could last months — aims to undercut dire tea party warnings that the standards amount to a federal power grab, akin to Obamacare. The TV spots and online ads will project a positive tone, featuring teachers praising the Common Core.
In a parallel effort unfolding mostly in deep red states, thousands of small-business owners and corporate executives have been bombarding state lawmakers with emails, calls and personal visits to press the point that better standards will mean a better workforce and ultimately, a better economy. They’ve been joined in some states by military officers who argue that not just the economy, but national security is at stake.
The strategy: Give conservatives reasons to support the Common Core — and make clear they will reap dividends if they do.
That exact strategy has been played out in Alabama in recent weeks.
The Business Council of Alabama (BCA), the official partner of the US Chamber of Commerce here in the state, has been the most vocal proponent of Common Core during the last two legislative sessions. BCA President & CEO Billy Canary and his lobbying team have fought tooth and nail to defeat several pieces of legislation that would either repeal or limit Common Core in Alabama.
“SB443 amounts to a significant usurpation of power by the Legislature,” Canary said of a recent anti-Common Core bill. “It is simply wrong. This is a political application at the expense of students and our future workforce. As we have said before, continued attempts by the Legislature to assume control of this issue, relegated by law to the State Board of Education, is the very definition of government overreach.”
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POLITICO gives us a peak behind-the-scenes into the BCA’s operation:
Billy Canary, president of the Business Council of Alabama, got four dozen influential executives on a conference call with the state senate leadership the other day to talk up the standards. He has also nudged hundreds of less prominent business leaders to reach out to their representatives in a campaign he calls “No lawmaker goes uncontacted.” If he senses a politician wavering on Common Core, he texts his pinstriped army. They spring at once into action.
Canary’s talking points might not win over parents who think of their children as precious individuals rather than workforce widgets, but they’re carefully calibrated to appeal to lawmakers concerned about economic development.
“The business community is by far the biggest consumer of the product created by our education system,” Canary tells them — and that system needs to produce better product if businesses are to compete in the global economy. “That’s why,” he said, “we’re all fighting in this direction.”
8 retired generals on the The Tennessee Valley Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Committee also recently sent a letter to the Alabama Legislature urging them to keep Common Core.
“The Department of Defense Education Activity and the Military Child Education Coalition have both endorsed the Common Core State Standards because of the consistency and the rigor they provide to students who move from state to state,” the letter said. “Tennessee Valley BRAC has repeatedly voiced its support for the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards, based on but independent of the Common Core State Standards.”
And as POLITICO points out, in spite of the Tea Party’s grassroots capabilities, they cannot compete with the financial resources of business groups and their members. But that doesn’t mean they’re backing down.
More from POLITICO:
Tea party activists are not intimidated.
On the contrary, they’re convinced the business community’s tactics will backfire by stoking populist outrage against the Common Core and its raft of powerful, establishment supporters. “Frankly, they can rant and rave as much as they want. They’re not going to affect me, and I don’t think they’re going to affect any others,” Arizona state Sen. Al Melvin said. “I’m a businessman. But sometimes, these chambers of commerce get it wrong.”
With both sides of the Common Core debate calling the issue their “top priority,” expect the battle to rage on well into Alabama’s 2014 election cycle and beyond.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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