David Harsanyi Addresses Arne Duncan's Attack on Common Core Critics
Duncan's recent comments were part of a pattern that undermines innovation and allows the achievement gap to get worse.
Common Core, the initiative that claims to more accurately measure K-12 student knowledge in English and math, also encourages children to step up their "critical thinking." That didn't stop Education Secretary Arne Duncan, one of Common Core's salesmen, from telling a group of school superintendents last week that it is "fascinating" to see opposition to the initiative coming from "white suburban moms who—all of a sudden, their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were." Duncan's comments, writes David Harsanyi, overlook a very real achievement gap in American education, and were part of a pattern of undermining innovation and attacking choice.