10-16-13 common core standards hearing in fdl

A series of public hearings  to study the Common Core Academic standards continue this week with a hearing Wednesday in Fond du lac.   Fond du Lac Republican state representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt and Republican State Senator Paul Farrow have scheduled  four joint Assembly and Senate Special Select Committee on Common Core standards hearings.  A hearing is scheduled from 2pm-8pm Wednesday at the Fond du lac city-county government center.   "The idea that I'm finding to be the strongest argument against it is the role of the federal government in this,"  Thiesfeldt told WFDL news.   "It has been historically kind of the rule that whenever the federal government sticks its fingers into something that role only seems to grow.  And there are some legitimate concerns that people have that there's nothing in our constitution about the federal government being involved in education and in spite of that its role has grown over the years and a lot of people think this will make it grow even more."   Tea party members sent lawmakers a letter earlier this year calling for an investigation into the standards.  Conservatives fear the standards are creating a loss of local control and the federal government is trying to gather students' personal information.  North Fond du Lac School superintendent, Aaron Sadoff says that's just not true.   "There are some people who aren't going to care to listen or change their mind about the Common Core, they think there's a conspiracy theory going on here and its the federal government's way of taking over, but you can't convince everybody,"  Sadoff said.   Fond du lac School superintendent, Dr. Jim Sebert, echoes Sadoff's comments.    " I think the challenge is tying in the political aspect and trying to think that there's something negative about them (standards) or that they're driven by the president or they're driven by the secretary of education or there's data collection or things like that, that I'm just not seeing,"  Sebert said.   Other hearings are scheduled this month in Eau Claire and Wausau.