Mediocre National Standards No Answer To 'Curriculum Massacre' Down In Texas
A bipartisan group of governors and state school superintendents gathered in Georgia earlier this month to unveil the final draft of proposed national math and English curriculum frameworks.
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is the latest attempt to impose order on the supposed chaos wrought by 50 states and the District of Columbia having the freedom to choose their own curricula and tests.
On the surface a common standards approach sounds appealing — especially after last month's raucous vote by the Texas Board of Education to overhaul the state's history and social studies textbooks.
The end of that months-long political drama led many pundits and politicians to conclude that the best way to avoid such fiascoes is to embrace a national curriculum crafted by "experts" as opposed to elected "yahoos."
Nothing could be further from the truth. If we want all the politicking and controversial content of the Texas process but little of the transparency and none of the accountability to voters, a national curriculum is definitely the way to go.
The Common Core State Standards are the culmination of some 18 months of work, mostly