How a Republican Congress Can Kill Common Core
Opponents and supporters of national standards in education both want the federal government to back off.
Republicans have retaken control of Congress on a promise to reverse President Barack Obama's failed policies. They should start by honing in on an initiative now synonymous with federal overreach and creeping nationalization of local education matters: the new Common Core national curriculum standards, which give parents everywhere nightmares about their kids' trendy, incomprehensible math homework assignments.
The GOP should tell Obama to back off and stop forcing the standards down the throats of various state legislatures. In doing so, Republicans would draw praise from Common Core's many critics—including conservatives and libertarians, parents, and even teachers—but also some of its most devout proponents, who believe federal involvement has resulted in nothing but bad PR for the initiative.
While Common Core has become conflated with federal education policy, the truth is that the initiative started out as a project of the National Governors Association and school administrators. The idea was to offer uniform curriculum standards to states that wanted to opt in.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration liked the idea so much that it began awarding significant perks to Core-aligned states. Signing on to Common Core meant a waiver from onerous federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements and a chance at Race to the Top grant money. After being offered what were essentially lucrative bribes, some 45 states signed onto Common Core between 2010 and 2012.
The situation infuriated libertarian and conservative critics of nationalized education policy. It's also made strange bedfellows of limited government folks and public school teachers, who generally support the idea of a standard curriculum but hate the rigorous, ceaseless standardized tests required by Common Core.
It's easy to see why the standards have everyone up in arms: Kids in New York City, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between are being forced to take exams aligned to new, unproven standards. Implementation is expensive—Common Core demands new textbooks and fancy technology—and some districts are still using the the old curriculum with the news tests, or vice versa. Since Common Core upends the customary order in which a student learns new concepts (high school algebra, geometry, and trigonometry are rearranged, for example), misalignment is a serious problem when exam time comes. The situation is a nightmare for parents who struggle night after night to help their kids' navigate Byzantine Common Core jargon.
Voters have had enough. Last week, they gave their support to several explicitly anti-Core candidates for local and statewide races. They also elected a new Republican majority to the U.S. Senate. Many of that body's highest profile legislators and presidential aspirants—including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio—have talked about stopping the madness.
It's time for push to get acquainted with shove. Congress should take Obama out of the Common Core equation entirely. Here's how: Legislators could approve an amendment to the federal education law that specifically prohibits waivers. Deprive federal bureaucrats of the power to bribe local lawmakers into remaining Core compliant, and many states would presumably drop out.
"Do that, and the main force keeping Common Core in states—NCLB waivers—would disappear," Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, tells Reason.
McCluskey believes such waivers are already illegal, but prompt legislation could ensure that the matter is clarified long before the Supreme Court weighs in on the Obama administration's similarly dubious Obamacare waivers.
"Should House Republicans prevail in their lawsuit against Obamacare waivers, the administration might back off of NCLB waivers on their own if pressed," says McCluskey. "But there are a lot of 'ifs' there."
It's true, Obama could always veto legislation restricting his NCLB waiver powers. But he would risk alienating the remarkably bipartisan anti-Common Core coalition, which includes many teachers who are otherwise supportive of liberal Democratic programs. Teachers took a beating in the elections last week—Republican governors took them on and won in state after state—and the only good news for them was that an empowered Republican majority is largely on their side when it comes to Common Core. Will Obama really deny them that small victory in order to protect an initiative he has no business pushing?
Given how enthusiastic the president is about federal power in general, the answer may very well be emphatically, yes. But that would be a shame, said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Fordham is a conservative education think tank that supports Common Core. Its researchers believe that on balance, the standards will improve education outcomes in most states.
Still, Petrilli opposes federal involvement. The president's actions have legitimized conservative fears about a federal takeover of education, and the best thing for the standards would be to allow them to succeed or fail in the states on their own merits—absent federal pressure to align, he said.
"Absolutely, it would be a wonderful thing for Congress to make it clear that the federal government should have nothing to do with Common Core," Petrilli told Reason. "I think it would be very helpful for the cause of Common Core to make it official and get the federal government out of the business of telling states what to adopt."
If Congressional Republicans pick a fight with Obama over Common Core and federal coercion, they will have everyone on their side—except the president. That sounds like a fight well worth having.
Millions of frustrated parents would thank them for it.
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Congress’ name shall be a killing word.
+1 Dune
Which gives me another idea. Each presidential candidate has to pass the gom jabbar before the primaries begin each election.
and ride a sand worm,or,maybe a knife fight to the death,yeah,that’s the ticket
Well, yes, those things would be nice, but let’s keep it simple, shall we? If they aren’t human, they get the needle. Can’t have human animals running the country, after all.
No, then you get a whole Congress made up of Teddy Roosevelts.
Not with the gom jabbar. Oh, you mean the sandworm-ridin’, knife-wielding candidates. Yeah, probably.
The only thing a Republican Congress will kill is liberty.
Indeed. Let no one forget that it was a Republican president who imposed wage and price controls.
Let’s us not forget how libertarian hero George McGovern hated those controls for not going far enough.
Yes, well, probably.
“The only thing a Republican Congress will kill is liberty.”
What you don’t think they can aspire to more than that? Please.
The entire dept.of ed needs to go,along with homeland,TSA,energy,and on and on
I have a whole list of things to eliminate.
I wonder, Education + HHS + Energy have a huge amount of “discretionary spending” in their budgets. Most of it goes to grants and such, so we get government-funded derp. I think combined, it’s $200 bil. just for discretionary budgets from those three agencies.
Obviously, the items should be zeroed out and the agencies themselves eliminated, but what would happen if we cut discretionary spending by 10%? How much would progs howl?
An infinite amount. After all, they were all a lather about cutting growth in spending slightly.
But then how will Top Men be able to tell you how you are supposed to live your life?
top men will be removed to a desolate prison,Detroit
so let them live in what they created for others then. Nice.
It’s only desolate thanks to the plethora of conservative policies that have been in place for over half a century, MSNBC told me so.
so you think people running for congress are human or is it wishful thinking?
how did that happen?
You’re right–gom jabbars for people running for Congress, too.
Still waiting on them opposing Social Security…
This just in:
Regular pot smokers slightly are more retarded than everyone else.
Time to ban pot again as it is Actually Bad for You.
That sentence makes my brain hurt.
Who are you fooling, Robby? The whole damn standards and assessment movement originated from the Reagan administration’s A Nation at Risk report and was then promoted throughout the years by Bennett and company until they won victory with NCLB.
I don’t think he’s fooling anyone since nothing he says contradicts any of that.
The attempt at fooling consists of giving false hope that the Republicans are going to do a damn thing about it.
As I recall, Bill Bennett was the guy who said that it would be morally plausible to behead drug users.
Bill Bennett may have been the worst appointee of Reagan’s entire Presidency.
He’s truly annoying. I hear him on the radio sometimes and can’t listen for very long. I can tolerate more from some other radio guys, even SoCons, but he just rubs me entirely the wrong way.
my classmate’s aunt makes $67 hourly on the computer . She has been unemployed for 5 months but last month her income was $21926 just working on the computer for a few hours. read here…..
?????? http://www.payinsider.com
Only an 82 hour work week! What a deal!
Sounds like a good deal dude.
http://www.anon-way.tk
Stossel mops the floor with Hennican:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVghvSZ6Wdw
Ellis says:
The impact that government has is trivial compared to … heredity…
He’s been reading Steve Sailer too?
And it would be just like the Republicans to spend their political momentum “killing” a set of voluntary standards proposed by a nonprofit that completely lacks the force of law unless adopted by individual states or counties instead of, oh, I don’t know, repealing the fucking ACA. You know, an actual federal law that actually does harm.
This is just like all those stupid-ass laws banning the imposition of Sharia. How the fuck do you think Sharia law would get imposed, dummy? If the state legislature would vote in favor of it, then they could certainly vote to overturn your law banning it, couldn’t they, dumbass?
Next time someone asks me why I vote Libertarian instead of Republican, this is why.
This fuss over common core seems like a necessary part of every discussion that has something to do with education. Sadly, being flexible is so unpopular today. To be honest, I think only English and Math should be obligatory. Today it’s not that hard to learn something if you want to so why forcing student? I know students who write admission essay in college and enjoy it. Same students hated it in school because it was a must. Education shouldn’t be a burden to students and we need to make it something they would enjoy.
Not all ideas of our government are good – all have faults, but I think this’s the right to life. It opens up new possibilities and I think that this is just the beginning. In this situation, you can only rely on their own strength and the help of experts who are always able to help even in the most difficult situation. If I search for expert help I use ratedwriting.com/services/affordablepapers-review. It always help me and I’m totally satisfied. Recommend it for all who don’t want to get in trouble with any writing!