Just as the Common-Core NYS tests commenced, the United Opt Out website was maliciously hacked. According to a statement from Peg Robertson, a founder of the site, "Our site was attacked, and essentially corrupted from its internal databases. The hacker crippled every single SQL table, and left them unrepairable, and our site frozen and inaccessible to administrate."
I have periodically read about acts of cyber war and cyber terrorism, and this is unconscionable. United Opt Out advocates and provides information for parents who seek to shield their children from the negative impacts of the new high-stakes testing. Any hacker who would strike at the heart of a parent's attempts to protect his or her child is playing with fire.
Initially, I was shocked. But the shock soon gave way to the realization that the same people who support Common Core, charter schools and so much of the current educational reform rammed down our throats have total contempt for democracy. Placing their ultimate faith in their superior intellects and their ability to ultimately buy public policy, they care little what people think. The perpetrator of this crime was one particularly malicious member of that breed.
Hacking the UOO Site seems not much different from traditional book burnings. It is the cyber equivalent. It is cowardly. It is an admission that one's ideas cannot win in a free competition; so, opposing ideas must be incinerated.
One can only wonder what will happen on Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 and Day 6 of the CCSS tests. It boggles the mind almost as much as the sea of bubbles on a little child's test papers.
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