Posted on 06/11/2013 10:13:42 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
The Pioneer Institute in cooperation with American Principles Project and Pacific Research Institute released late last month a white paper written by Robert Scott, the former Texas Commissioner of Education. It is entitled “A Republic of Republics: How Common Core Undermines State and Local Autonomy over K-12 Education.”
Here is the executive summary:
In three years’ time, the United States has witnessed a sweeping effort to dramatically alter how educational systems are governed and standards and curricula are developed. With the 2009 announcement of an initiative to develop and implement common standards and assessments across all states, and with subsequent federal incentive programs designed to encourage states to sign on to this new initiative, the federal government has succeeded in fundamentally altering the relationships between Washington and the states. The United States has a history of state and local control in K-12 education, and that local control has always translated into diverse systems of educational governance and diverse standards.
By signing on to national standards and the assessments that will accompany them, participating states have ceded their autonomy to design and oversee the implementation of their own standards and tests. The implications of ceding this autonomy are varied. Not only do some states risk sacrificing high quality standards for national standards that may be less rigorous, all states are sacrificing their ability to inform what students learn. Moreover, the act of adopting national standards has and will continue to disrupt legal and other processes upon which states rely to ensure the adequate and equitable delivery of educational materials and resources. Finally and, perhaps, most distressing, the predicted cost to states of implementing the Common Core is in the billions of dollars, a number that only stands to grow if implementation ramps up.
Drawing generously from the experience in Texas, one of only a handful of states that has thus far refused to join in the Common Core, this paper outlines a brief history of the initiative and the federal programs designed, in part, to incentivize states to join in the effort. It goes on to describe the many costs, financial and otherwise, that come with Common Core, not least of which is the cost to states of sacrificing their autonomy to make decisions about standards and testing and the many other aspects of education upon which these things touch. This paper ends with a brief discussion of the likely road ahead in national education reform and makes recommendations for how policymakers and concerned citizens might think about the proper federal and state roles in education vis–à–vis national standards and tests.
You can read it in full below:
A Republic of Republics: How Common Core Undermines State and Local Autonomy over K-12 Education
I home school in CA.
I am afraid for my grandchildren.
Texas has removed Common Core
The problem is that education in the US is failing. We have a lower literacy rate now than we did 20 years ago.
That is what the CC is supposed to address. But it won’t.
Education is not valued by the underclass, and sneered at by the elite.
Don’t worry about Common Core, it will fail. Quickly.
CC has permeated Wisconsin. How do you get rid of it after the cancer is entrenched? I would LOVE to follow Texas’ example and dig our way out of this Trojan horse. All our lawmakers see is the Federal seed money.
We’ve managed to hold it off here in Iowa. And, in this last legislative session we managed to attach amendments to the education “reform” bill that completely removed state control over home schools and private schools.
So, if you get the right principled people elected to your legislature, you CAN drive back this beast.
now they say that diversity is bad??? WTF?
when will it end.
t
It was interesting how 3/4 of the school districts implemented common core as “curriculum material” instead of text books. Text book fights are political and vicious at times, but there is input from both sides here in Texas. They used the “curriculum materials” loophole, not subject to board review or parental input, to implement something that covered everything from texts to tests.
Oh shut UP!!!
We LOST any control we had over 'education' when we accepted 'federal' money.
Is there ANY school in AMERICA that is now getting Feder.. TAXPAYER money that has the BALLS to stop it?
You all know the Golden Rule: Whoever supplies the gold MAKES the rules!
Afraid enough to DO something?
I did know that.
We will be sending our little girl to a private school, and have checked it out
You make a good point, but you didn’t have to bite my head off. I didn’t write it. I simply shared it so that folks could learn more about how awful “Common Core” is.
I’ve advocated the complete separation of school and state for many years. I don’t want the feds in it - they have no constitutionally legitimate role - and given my druthers, the states would get completely out of the education business as well. Which means we have to amend many state constitutions to make sure they keep their noses out of it for good.
Way to go!
Afraid enough to DO something?
Oh, yes, We have been fighting it here in WI through our local tea party groups etc. My Representive, Steve Kestell, is sick of hearing from me because he is on the state board.
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