From Projo.com: Alongside the attempted federalization of health care in Washington, with details being hashed out behind closed doors, a parallel bid to nationalize K-12 education is going forward more subtly but just as surely.
“Sight unseen” is the mode of operation in both cases. (Which seems to be the way this administration and Congress like to operate.)
Members of Congress have had to vote on complex health-care-overhaul details they have not studied and sometimes not even seen. Similarly, states seeking to win juicy shares of the $4.35 billion in one-time education grants dangled before them by the Obama administration must agree to adopt a set of national education standards and a national test.
State and local school systems had until this past Tuesday to have their so-called Race to the Top (RttT) applications filed with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. His office has stated clearly, in writing, that states will have no real shot at this slush fund unless they have agreed to adopt “common standards” and “common assessments.”
The consortium of Big Education interests behind the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) released a first draft of national “college and career readiness” standards last fall, but its grade-by-grade K-12 standards for language arts and math either have not been completed or are not available for public inspection. Texas and Alaska are the only two states that have declined to hop aboard this Race over the Cliff.
Meanwhile, the common assessment — a national test — is currently just something Duncan vows to purchase with a spare $350 million from his federal stimulus stash, employing yet another handpicked consortium to write the test for all American children.
In short, states must accept the national standards and national test — essentially a national curriculum — sight unseen if they want the federal largess.
Read the rest HERE.
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