'Obama Administration Plans to Make CCSS Permanent and Mandatory'

I want to stress at the outset that I didn’t come up with this title about the latest federal move regarding the Common Core State Standards. This comes from a blog written by the well-known liberal education historian Dr. Diane Ravitch.

She is no conservative!

However, Ravitch is actually picking up on – and agreeing with – comments from the conservative CATO Institute about how the Obama administration wants to make CCSS a permanent part of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).The blog says the Obama folks want to change the operation of the ESEA to a focus on “College- and Career-Ready Students.”

Ravitch says the original ESEA:

“…was intended to distribute federal aid to schools that enroll poor kids, no conditions attached. The funding is based on a formula tied to need, not a competition. Using it to cement CCSS into every school would be a travesty and a misuse of federal power.”

Ravitch closes with this thought about the nation’s poor students:

“They need equitable resources more than they need the untested CCSS.”

So it looks like federal entanglements involving CCSS continue to grow, and one of the amazing things is that both liberals and conservatives are concerned by what both view as a federal overreach.