Editor’s note: The following essays have been adapted from Common Core: Yea & Nay, which will be published by Encounter Books this month.
Our conservative Core
by Sol Stern
Many conservatives, perhaps a majority, now believe that the Common Core State Standards are among the worst things ever to happen in American education. And why wouldn’t they believe it? For the past three years they have been bombarded by conservative media outlets and think tanks with scary-sounding allegations that the Obama administration illegally imposed the Common Core on the states and that the President’s power grab is leading to a dumbed-down, leftist curriculum in the schools.
It’s understandable that conservatives who believe such tall tales would want to see the education initiative they now call “Obama Core” rolled back. Opposition to Common Core by the Tea Party and other activist groups has the feel of a populist revolt. It has already succeeded in pressuring many Republican candidates and elected officials to reject the Standards. Indiana and Oklahoma have withdrawn from the Common Core and the program is in peril in several other states.
Most recently, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin called on his state’s legislature to dump Common Core and replace it “with standards set by the people of Wisconsin.” Louisiana Governor and Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal was for the Common Core before he was against it, apparently because he suddenly discovered it was all part of an
