Federal courts strongly rule that education is a state responsibility. Progressives hate that. So, since Jimma Carter and his “Dept. of Education” the camel has been sticking it’s nose deeper and deeper into the tent: Special Ed; Public Law 94-142; Americans with Disability; Drug Free Schools; No Child Left behind and now Common Core. Saddest thing is all of these are unfunded or under-funded mandates and the stupid damn governors don’t realize they’re all just settling for common mediocrity instead of striving for exceptional achievement for their states. Everybody gets better when there’s competition. Nobody thrives under a system.
I don't think common core can fairly be described as mediocrity. Look at the sample second grade work I posted above. It's ridiculous. Maybe 1/3 of all second graders can do that work, and many of them will only be able to do it if their after school life suffers. Our grandson is probably high middle in terms of intelligence. Ordinarily we would expect him to get perfect scores on second grade reading and vocab tests. But there's no way he can do that unless he loses some of his childhood. Absolutely not worth it. There'll be time to learn how to spell business and daughter in fourth grade, where those spelling words belong.
And if they want some kids to learn this stuff, I have no problem with that. Some of my own kids, my girls especially, would have had no problem with this work in second grade. But to take this work and pretend that an entire second grade classroom can learn it, is ridiculous.