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Politics

Action Plan Lights Fire Under Anti-Common Core Activists

August 7, 2014 - 6:00pm

A little over two weeks ago, some of the nations top anti-Common Core activists gathered together for a live rally to protest the national education standards that have been making waves across the country.

This week, event leader Glenn Beck came out with an updated 37-page action plan, which elaborates in high detail on how the average Joe can fight back against Common Core.

The plan is a result of We Will Not Conform, a live event which was held in several hundred movie theaters across the country July 22. During WWNC, viewers listened intently as Beck and others expounded upon the many reasons they believe Common Core is the wrong choice for Americas students.

At the end of the event, they were directed to download WWNCs action plan to guide their movement against the standards.

[The plan] is fairly comprehensive, Dr. Karen Effrem of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition told Sunshine State News. There are five areas and they break [the plan] down within each area and there are a lot of different things that people can do.

The five areas of the action plan include: research and resources, grassroots activism, politics, alternative schooling and messaging, and public relations.

Each section is chock-full of links where readers can sink their teeth into further information about Common Core.

Some links provided in the plan lead readers to proposed statewide legislation against the standards and information on politicians supporting Common Core. Others show how to get involved in a local, grassroots movement against the standards by starting letter-writing campaigns and hosting rallies to make noise against Common Core.

Social media is another way activists are gearing up to make their voices heard. Event participants and interested parties were encouraged to keep the conversation against the standards going through social media networks like Twitter and Facebook.

The plan provides a handful of hashtags as well as several Twitter handles to follow.

Two of Floridas very own movements were featured in the appendix of the plan -- FSCCC as well as Stop Common Core FL, two of the Sunshine States leading organizations against Common Core.

Dr. Effrem told SSN that FSCCC has been using social media intensely over the past year to spread the word of her groups message.

We started just about a year ago and weve already [gained] 1,200 followers on Twitter, she said of FSCCCs progress in social media. It ramps up all the time.

She said she noticed a significant uptick in followers after Becks July event.

I noticed after [We Will Not Conform], where they mentioned our group a couple of times, we had a ton of people sign up for email updates and had new followers.

FSCCC has nearly 2,000 likes on Facebook -- and theyre not the only show in town. Other grassroots groups across the state also boast followings and keep spreading the message against the standards.

One of the most IMPORTANT things you can do right NOW is to go to our website and sign the petition to Governor Scott to remove Common Core from Florida, reads Stop Common Core SE Floridas Facebook page, which is flooded with anti-CCSS image macros criticizing the standards.

With Becks plan in hand, one thing has become clearer than ever: the anti-Common Core protesters have no intentions of going away, and an organized plan may give them the ammunition they need to make rifts against Common Core not just in Florida, but nationwide.

Reach Tampa-based reporter Allison Nielsen at Allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter at @Allison Nielsen.

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