I’ve written several times about the Common Core State Standards on this blog. And most readers are probably aware that the proposed standards have come under attack in a number of states.
The goings-on in places like Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York, and elsewhere with respect to the Common Core can be confusing. To help sort out and understand the current controversy, check out former Education Secretary William J. Bennett’s op-ed on the topic in today’s Wall Street Journal.
It does a good job explaining how a commonsense idea that most can agree on – equipping American schoolchildren with basic skills in order to help them compete in a modern economy and participate in civic life – has gotten mired in acrimony and argument.
The chief culprit – no surprise – is Washington politics. Writes Bennett:
In 2009 the Education Department created Race to the Top grants, federal funding for states that met certain educational benchmarks. To qualify, states were required, for instance, to demonstrate that they had a common, high-quality set of standards. Common Core standards satisfied the criteria.
Critics accused President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan of dangling federal money to encourage states to adopt the Common Core. The administration never should have done this. It made a voluntary agreement among states look like a top-down directive from the federal government.
Some criticism of the Common Core State Standards is legitimate, Bennett allows. But, he adds, that much more is based on myths and misinformation about what the standards are and what they will mean for children’s education.
The bottom line is simple. “The standards are designed to invite states to take control and to build upon them further,” writes Bennett. “The standards do not prescribe what is taught in our classrooms or how it’s taught. That decision should always rest with local school districts and school boards.”
As we’ve said before, the Common Core helps define the knowledge and skills children should be learning on the way to the colleges and careers of the 21st century. The voluntary standards do not say how to get there. That is a state and local matter.
Former Secretary Bennett has done a valuable service by looking beyond D.C. politics to consider the Common Core on the merits alone. Let’s hope his op-ed brings balance to the discussion.
