Left and right might actually agree more often if the former too the time to understand the latter.
For example, the latest issue of Rethinking Schools editorializes against the Obama Administration Common Core education reforms. “For starters, the misnamed ‘Common Core State Standards’ are not state standards,” RS the RS editorial reads. “They’re national standards created by Gates-funded consultants for the National Governors Association (NGA).”
“They were designed, in part, to circumvent federal restrictions on the adoption of a national curriculum, hence the insertion of the word ‘state’ in the brand name.” So far, so accurate, then the editorial goes on into the murky waters of where the Obama Administration initiated its educational Race to the Top and tried to modify No Child Left Behind: “States were coerced into adopting the Common Core by requirements attached to the federal Race to the Top grants and, later, the No Child Left Behind waivers.” They go on to note parenthetically, “(This is one reason many conservative groups opposed to any federal role in education oppose the Common Core.)”
This latter “reason” somehow links conservatives to Common Core. Part of the confusion comes from mistaking the votes of elected Republicans, press releases of Republican officials and even positions of GOP candidates for the beliefs of conservatives.
For our part, we have done more than 100 stories on NCLB [1], few, if any, of them laudatory.
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail mal.kline@academia.org [2].