Cutting to the core of Jindal’s flip-flop on aligning schools with national standards
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Gov. Jindal was all for the Common Core — before he was against it.
Bobby Jindal came into office hoping to “go down in history as … the most boring governor of Louisiana.” No scandals or indictments, no off-color jokes about the political penalty for sleeping with dead girls or live boys.
He’s lived up to the promise in many senses. As far as anyone knows, he hasn’t gambled, philandered, taken bribes or blackmailed lawmakers. He hasn’t showed up drunk on the floor of the Legislature. He hasn’t been charged with a crime, been committed to a mental institution, or been punched in the face in a New York city men’s room — as have various of his predecessors.
Yet, at the end of his second term, NPR has seen fit to describe the governor’s latest gambit as “bizarre,” and “a bit of ‘The Twilight Zone.’”
Yes, a Louisiana governor has once again attracted political circus gawkers to our zany state, but this time he’s done it without an ounce of style. It wasn’t drink, chickie-wah-wah, or a mad quest for power that drove our governor over the edge; it was the Common Core school standards.
The question remains: Why, Bobby? Why did you cap off your sober-sided incumbency (whatever we may think of your agenda) with a hopeless one-man charge against almost everyone, including your own appointees and a Legislature dominated by your own party? Federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan states the obvious: “Gov. Jindal was a passionate supporter [of Common Core] before he was against it. So this, from that situation, is about politics. It’s not about education.”
Of course the governor begs to disagree. The stated reason for his dogged resistance to Common Core turns on one very general, vague theme: fear of a “federalized curriculum” — no matter, as is pointed out repeatedly, that Common Core is not a federal program. Foes have dubbed it “Obamacore!” and that seems to be enough analysis to fire up Bobby’s rockets. But Obama had nothing to do with drafting the standards or getting states to sign on. Governors came up with the idea, with Jindal prominent among them.
And not only is Common Core not a federal program, it’s not even a “curriculum.” The Common Core standards are a recommendation. States interested in upgrading their schools are encouraged to strive toward those standards by developing curricula of their own.
Complying with the Core requires, for example, teaching younger students to cite sources or to locate specific information in a text, but does not stipulate which text. True, there is a greater emphasis on non-fiction, which is a concern for lovers of imaginative literature like me, but since when are Republicans champions of humanities and fine arts over technical education?
Jindal has asserted that tests drive curricula, something the left has been saying since the second President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program started demanding “accountability” from both public school students and their teachers. The lefties critical of so much testing came up with a logical solution: Ditch high-stakes standardized tests altogether. But the right can’t stand the idea of Cutting to the core of Jindal’s flip-flop on aligning schools with national standards | The Lens: