It’s not a very challenging math word problem, but it proved a very powerful point.

Arkansas parent Karen Lamoreaux said the Arkansas Board of Education this: If there are 18 students in a class, and the class counts itself by a number and ends with 90, what number did they count by?

One of the board members says they counted by 5s, saying that 90 divided by 18 is 5.

Under Common Core standards, if the student simply divides 90 by 18, they get the question incorrect. She then raised a sheet showing countless notes and drawings totaling a befuddling 108 steps to solve the problem, which she said is the way children in the state are taught to solve the problem under the Common Core standards.

“We were told that Common Core is a set of rigorous, college-ready internationally benchmarked standards that prepare our kids to compete in a global economy. This is nothing more than an empty sales pitch for government and corporates to profit from our kids and sail them down the river for the sake of saving education,” she said.

“I’m here not speaking on behalf of just myself, but 1,110 other parents, educators and taxpayers in our state that have very serious reservations on the Common Core initiative,” she added.

Watch Karen Lamoreaux tackle the Common Core using simple math.

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