Why the Common Core Became a Political Football
by Frederick M. Hess • Aug 5, 2013 at 10:20 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
The wheels on the Common Core bus have developed a visible rattle of late. Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Utah have withdrawn from assessment consortia. With Tony Bennett no longer state chief in Florida, there's an excellent chance that Florida will bail. The unexpectedly high cost of assessments has sparked complaints. Florida senator and Tea Party icon Marco Rubio has come out against the standards. Jeb Bush is getting slammed by some Tea Party columnists for backing the standards. (The first rule of coalition politics: It's not good when supporting your bipartisan cause puts crucial backers at war with their base.) And New Jersey governor Chris Christie has made the Core a new front in his attack on "knee-jerk" Republicans, heaping fuel on the fire.
This turn of events has spurred some healthy responses on the part of the Common Core'ites. Last week, Student Achievement Partners honcho Jason Zimba strapped on his helmet and penned a sharp op-ed in response to an equally sharp critique of the Common Core math standards. CCSSO and New York state chief John King are conducting a call today to inform various influentials and press about New York's new Core-aligned assessment results (due out Wednesday). This kind of proactive engagement demonstrates respect for the democratic process and the concerns of millions of parents and voters. Good for Zimba, King, and CCSSO, and I hope we see much more like this.
But, the thing of it is that the story needn't have gone this way.
Of course, the Tea Party was going to fight anything that smacked of federal intervention in local schools, and of course the Republicans were going to try to punch Obama in the nose. But that didn't mean the Tea Party or the R's would choose to stand and fight on the Common Core. After all, supporters keep insisting that the
