Indiana’s up-to-date governor, Mike Pence, has signed a bill that will “pause” the state’s involvement in the statewide Common Core education program. The fact that this is happening in Indiana has very specific political significance, but the fact that it is happening at all has broad implications.
Before delving into the significance of Pence’s maneuver, consider some facts about the Common Core. This program, officially called the Common Core State Standards Initiative, does not itself address curriculum mandates. It is a set of academic standards that students at different grade levels are expected to achieve in states that have agreed to adopt the standards.
It is also true that Common Core was created by the Obama administration, but it is actually an effort that first emerged at the state level and was undertaken by state governors and state school superintendents across the country. The official sponsoring organizations for this initiative are the National Governors Association (“NGA”) and the Council of State School Superintendents (“CCSO”).
Attempts to impose academic standards on public teachers date back to the early 1980s. In the 1990s, it became a state-driven affair, while the federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President George W. Bush in January 2002, required states to create their own academic standards , and then their achievements. to receive federal education funds.
Over the past decade, state governors and state superintendents of education have begun working together to try to standardize academic standards across their states, and there are now three main organizations that implement Common Core. As noted above, NGA and CCSO remain the official sponsoring organizations of the initiative. Separately, a group called Common Core, Inc., a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization based in Washington, D.C., writes curricula (not academic standards) to support teachers meet the Common Core Standards.
Supporters of Common Core State Standards like to point out that the initiative has bipartisan support across the country. This is true – both the right-wing “Foundation for Excellence in Education”. a group led by former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and the left-leaning American Federation of Teachers support Common Core. Similarly, both Republican and Democratic governors – including Governor Butch Otter (Idaho), Governor Jerry Brown (D-Calif.), and Governor Duval Patrick (Massachusetts) – all support Common Core efforts.
But Common Core also faces bipartisan opposition. The conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation, along with libertarian groups such as the Pioneer Institute of Boston, opposes Common Core efforts. But so does Glenda Ritz, a Democrat who currently serves as Indiana’s state superintendent of education.
Ritz’s election in the largely Republican state of Indiana is often cited as evidence of Common Core’s unpopularity. In November 2012, Ritz unseated incumbent Republican Indiana State Superintendent Dr. Tony Bennett, in part by campaigning against the Common Core initiative and claiming that Indiana’s adoption of Common Core standards would result in a loss of state sovereignty. Ritz ultimately received more votes in this election than up-to-date (and now very popular) Governor Mike Pence – and therein lies the significance of Pence’s latest move.
But Indiana’s “pause” on Common Core is vital for more than just political reasons (it actually exemplifies Democrat Ritz and Republican Pence’s sense of cooperation). It also shows that at least some Americans still genuinely fear the federal government taking over and controlling very intimate areas of our lives. This suggests that some of our fellow countrymen continue to cling to the wisdom of, say, Thomas Jefferson, who warned of the threat of government tyranny, rather than believe the naive and selfish view that President Obama expressed last week in his commencement address to Ohio State University , where he admonished graduates to stand up to those who warn against government tyranny (as if such a thing didn’t actually exist).
But should the Common Core standards program be considered “tyranny”? Three separate federal laws prohibit the federal government from imposing curriculum content on the nation’s public schools. However, during Barack Obama’s administration, there was a concerted effort in his administration to gain control of the Common Core program and bypass federal restrictions.
In 2009 and 2010, when the administration distributed so-called “stimulus” funds, one of the criteria for public schools to receive the funds was for school districts to adopt higher “education and career standards” for students. And as it happened, in order to qualify for stimulus funds, many states then chose to adopt the “Common Core” academic standards in order to apply for and receive federal funds.
The bipartisan group of state governors and school superintendents who support the Common Core program undoubtedly have the best intentions. But the inability of elected officials to see how government power can be abused is a problem for Republicans and Democrats alike.
Other states should follow Indiana’s lead. And as we press “pause” on Common Core, consider the same for Obamacare.
