Just days after
I suggested that the best way to stop Common Core was for
Congressional Republicans to prohibit federal education waivers,
the Obama administration has
invited states to renew their current waivers through the
2018-2019 school year. In effect, this is a not-so-subtle attempt
to keep states hooked on Common Core for years after President
Obama leaves office.
As I explained previously, the federal government was never
supposed to have anything to do with Common Core, the national
education curriculum standards devised by the National Governors
Association. But Obama, who likes having his hands in everything
and isn’t so hot on federalism, instructed his Department of
Education to incentivize states to adopt the standards. These
incentives took the form of federal grant money through the Race to
the Top initiative and regulatory waivers that exempted
Core-compliant states from burdensome No Child Left Behind Act
requirements. More than 40 states received waivers at some
point.
Increasing numbers of parents, teachers, students, and local
activists of the left, right, and center all despise Common Core
and the disruption it has created in classrooms. But state
legislatures have every reason to keep the standards—if they don’t,
their states will no longer be considered committed to the goal of
“college-and-career-ready standards,” and punitive NCLB
requirements will kick in.
Now that Republican foes of Common Core have power in U.S.
Congress, they should abolish the waivers and take Obama out of the
game. It’s a move that even Common Core’s supports are okay
with.
DOE’s latest announcement that it would like states to renew
their waivers should serve as a good reminder of why it is so
critical for Republicans to strip the executive branch of this
power. Otherwise, Obama could dupe the states into codifying his
misguided education policies far beyond the end of his second
term.
More from Reason on Common Core here.
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