The Council of Chief State School Officers and National Governors Association:
Whom do they serve?
Introduction
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) are member associations headquartered in Washington, DC. They are also co-owners of the Common Core Standards—the controversial educational content standards that most US states have incorporated, in whole or in part, into their K–12 education programs.[1]
Yet, despite what their names might suggest, they are not government entities, even though most of their members are elected or appointed state government officials. Peter Wood explains[2]
The standards were developed by the National Governors Association (NGA) in collaboration with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). These are private, non-governmental bodies—in effect, education trade organizations. The National Governors Association, despite its name, isn't just a group of sitting governors. It includes many ex-governors and current or former gubernatorial staff members. The deliberations of the NGA and the CCSSO are not open to the public and the work that these bodies did to develop the Common Core State Standards remains for the most part unavailable to outsiders. Neither body, being private, is subject to Freedom of Information requests. The standards themselves are copyrighted by the NGA and the CCSSO.
The impact these organizations have on US schools via the Common Core Initiative deserves our attention and scrutiny. Also important to consider, however, is the impact their intimate association with the Common Core Initiative has had on them. Do these organizations any longer serve their members' needs on education issues? Do governors and state superintendents receive unbiased information and a full range of evidence and policy options from the association staff they pay with their member dues?
A Note on Data Sources
This report lifts most of its facts from CCSSO and NGA filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)[3] and the CCSSO and NGA websites. Other sources are referenced as appropriate.
Financial accounts appeal as a source of organizational information, in part, because one expects them to be accurate and complete. They are typically filed by professionals who both have legally binding fiduciary responsibilities and are desirous of preserving their reputations (and staying out of jail). Moreover, they are subject to audit by the IRS, an agency with considerable legal authority.
That doesn't mean that IRS filings are always as informative as they could be. One will not find, for example, any record in the CCSSO's filings of the contributions it has received. Since fiscal year 2004, the CCSSO has folded all its contribution (i.e., grant and donation) revenue into the "program service revenue" category, perhaps inappropriately. Program service revenue comprises fees, dues, and direct payments for services.[4]
In 2014, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded CCSSO $6,148,749. Granted, the money was awarded contingent upon the CCSSO using it for certain purposes. But, the Gates Foundation did not receive the services and materials the grant paid for. If it had, it could not have legally classified the expense as a charitable contribution.
CCSSO's own auditor reports, available from its website (with some digging), itemize grants received from the federal government, but not those from anywhere else.[5]
Suffice it to say that, even though the CCSSO may, perhaps, wish to obscure the origins of the grants it receives, those contributions are substantial and now dwarf the revenues received from membership dues and meeting registration fees.
As for the National Governors Association (NGA), financial data for its education activities remain well hidden. The Center for Best Practices—NGA's research and policy analysis division—is just one of several within the NGA. Likewise, the education group is just one of several groups within the Center for Best Practices, and one of the smaller ones at that. Publicly available financial data break down only to the level of the Center as a whole. Contributions from CONTINUE READING: CCSSO & NGA: Whom do they Serve?
