DEPT. OF EDUCATION ERECTS OBSTACLES TO KEEP STATES IN COMMON CORE

Human Events ^ | May 12, 2014 | By David Craig

[Jim Robinson]

When someone hears bureaucratic terms like “compliance, mandates and penalties,” they might think of the EPA, the IRS, or these days, the Department of Health and Human Services. But another federal government department is fast adopting the language of strict and onerous regulation. Annoyed that Indiana wants to extricate themselves from the Common Core education standards, the U.S. Department of Education is erecting procedural obstacles to make this as difficult possible.

At stake for Hoosiers is $200 million in federal education funds. The Obama Administration is using “No Child Left Behind” waivers to warn Indiana officials of the penalties they face for non-compliance with Common Core. In a political scheme that could only be hatched in Washington, one federal program enacted under George W. Bush and widely derided for undermining local school authority, is pitted against another federal program even more derided for the same reasons.

Horror stories about Common Core are increasing by the day. Police are ejecting or arresting parents from public venues for voicing opposition to Common Core. Social media depicts test questions that make young pupils burst into tears, because they are impossible to answer and make them feel like failures. Meanwhile, elected officials like me are concerned about yet another federal government mandate that dangles $4 billion in federal Race to the Top education grants for local schools under the condition of adherence to Common Core.

Indiana is the first state to officially back out of Common Core. Governor Mike Pence signed into law legislation this spring requiring the state to adopt its own standards and opt-out of Common Core. “I believe our students are best served when decisions about education are made at the state and local level,” Pence said. That sounds simple and agreeable enough.

[oldtech]

Staes should not have to depend on paybacks from the feds for education. The feds have no business being involved in the education business in the first place. I’ve always thought that perhaps taxes should go to local level first,the state,& lastly to the feds. Seems like this might be a better way to go. It should eliminate a bunch of wasteful federal spending.

[Jim Robinson]

Definitely.

[ReagansShinyHair]

We’re Hoosiers. We switched to homeschooling this year. Best decision for our kids that we have ever made. Yeah, I gave up a lot of my career, but the kids are worth it. It goes way beyond Common Core.

Indiana didn’t really get rid of Common Core, anyway. Indiana kept most of the Common Core standards, and with the way textbooks are produced they’ll have to use textbooks that are Common Core aligned (who’s going to produce textbooks just for Indiana?).