USED Official Admits Federal Curriculum Violation in Bush-Supported Race to the Top
The arguments made by establishment proponents of Race to the Top and Common Core, including some presidential candidates continue to implode. The well-worn chant that these were “state-led,” “voluntary,” “hijacked by the federal government,” and especially that Common Core is “only standards” and “has nothing to do with curriculum” is dissolving into thin air. That particular claim about curriculum has been absolutely shredded in the admission by former US Department of Education (USED) official, Joanne Weiss in an essaydiscussing the “lessons learned” from the whole effort to nationalize education standards via Race to the Top (RTTT). Weiss actually brags that RTTT, a federal government program, produced curriculum:
In addition, new curriculum materials funded through Race to the Top and released in 2014 are already in use in 20 percent of classrooms nationwide.(Emphasis added).
This is a clear violation of three federal laws that prohibit federal involvement in curriculum – The Elementary and Secondary Education Act [ESEA – 20 U.S.C. § 7907(a)], The Department of Education Organization Act [20 U.S.C. § 3403(b)], and the General Education Provisions Act USED Official Admits Federal Curriculum Violation in Bush-Supported Race to the Top | Truth in American Education: