George Will has a great column explaining the growing opposition to Common Core education standards. ? (Check out our explanation of Common Core for background.) ? Will writes in Doubts over Common Core:
Viewed from Washington, which often is the last to learn about important developments, opposition to the?Common Core State Standards Initiative?still seems as small as the?biblical cloud?that ariseth out of the sea, no larger than a man?s hand. Soon, however, this education policy will fill a significant portion of the political sky.
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The Common Core represents the ideas of several national organizations (of governors and school officials) about what and how children should learn. It is the thin end of an enormous wedge. It is designed to advance in primary and secondary education the?general progressive agenda?of centralization and uniformity.
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Although 45 states and the District of Columbia have struck this bargain, most with little debate, some are reconsidering and more will do so as opposition mounts.
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Opposition to the Common Core is surging because Washington, hoping to mollify opponents, is saying, in effect: ?If you like your local control of education, you can keep it. Period.? To which a burgeoning movement is responding: ?No. Period.?
It is great to see a columnist of George Will’s stature discuss Common Core, which has been kept quiet by many in the media. ? Will makes two great points in his column that are strong arguments against the Common Core educational standards:
[1]?Even satisfactory national standards must extinguish federalism?s creativity: At any time, it is more likely there will be half a dozen innovative governors than one creative federal education bureaucracy. And the mistakes made by top-down federal reforms arecontinental?mistakes.
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What is ludicrous is Common Core proponents disdaining concerns related to this fact: Fifty years of increasing Washington input into K-12 education has coincided with disappointing cognitive outputs from schools. Is it eccentric that it is imprudent to apply to K-12 education the federal touch that has given us HealthCare.gov?
Amen, George!