The following was written Sandra Stotsky, one of the primary authors of the highly-regarded Massachusetts standards for English Language Arts. Here is an earlier piece by Stotsky on the Common Core standards. It is amazing that one badly informed person could single-handedly alter and weaken the entire public school curriculum in this country, without any public discussion. Indeed David Coleman, author of the Common Core standards in English Language Arts, was able to impose his personal preferences on a document called our “national standards.” Not one legal organization in this country has so far mounted a challenge to the entire series of non-transparent procedures, funding sources, and appointments that gave one person the authority to make national