What Happened to the 'M' in STEM?

At the December meeting of the Hollidaysburg Area School Board, on which I serve, I voted against a proposal for eight new high school-level science and technology elective course offerings in our district.

Why would I do that? After all, we live in the new “STEM” world where encouraging our kids to enter these important fields in science, technology, engineering and math, is a high educational and societal priority, right? Allow me to explain.

Common Core standards have been the bane of parents’ and students’ existence for the past several years. Recent NAEP (The “Nation’s Report Card”) score...