Common Core: An Oligarchy of Tyranny of the Elite?
Has our educational system moved from a rule of law (republic) to the rule of a few (oligarchy) via the Common Core States Standards Initiative? Is the Common Core State Standards Initiative the vehicle for the rule of a few over the many?
If you examine the political structure and history of the initiative, the answer is a resounding yes. State educational agencies (SEAs) have constitutionally been tasked with setting the educational direction/development for their citizens. There has been encroaching Federal centralization to limit the powers of the state and local districts in decision making for their schools long before the Common Core States Standards Initiative was adopted and implemented. If schools/districts/states do not meet goals set by Federal Agencies (testing goals, healthy eating goals, etc) funding is in jeopardy for the schools and SEAs. The Federal government has allowed private organizations to fashion public policy (benefiting those private companies) without legislative approval or public vote. The public/private partnership survives on public money but without public input.
The rule of law is superseded by mandates crafted by private non-governmental organizations complete with threats of the withholding of governmental funding by the Federal government. This sums up the history of the CCSSI experiment in a nutshell. Can any CCSS supporters contradict the assertion that the adoption/implementation circumvented the political process of having state legislatures and the voters decide if they wanted this plan? One elected official (the governor) in Missouri signed onto the theory of the standards (they were not yet written). The rest of the signatories are political appointees. Does the governor have the authority as governor to Common Core: An Oligarchy of Tyranny of the Elite? | Missouri Education Watchdog:
