National Education Standards: The Next Washington Takeover

Lindsey Burke / July 21, 2010

The New York Times reports that 27 states are planning to adopt the set of national standards developed by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) — standards being backed by the Obama administration with federal funds.

Like so many of the president’s moves in the past year, this push to get states to adopt national standards has been an end-run around normal legislative procedure.

National standards — “federal norms” for what’s taught in your local school, as the Times puts it — represent a massive change in American education. Yet there has been virtually no public or legislative debate about this federal takeover. Indeed, the Obamaadministration has moved rapidly to press states to swallow the agenda.

The agenda has also been bank-rolled by some deep pockets. Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Gates Foundation gave more than $35 million to groups developing the national standards, including the NGA and CCSSO. Noting that the Obamaadministration cannot go further in funding the standards movement without it being seen as federally led, the Post writes that “The [Gates] foundation has stepped into the void, becoming the movement’s top funder.” Critics, they note, see the Gates Foundation as being so closely involved that it resembles “an arm of the government.” (more…)