National education standards: Still not a conservative idea

The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “In reality, there is nothing conservative about national standards, which will further tie schools to the demands of Washington bureaucrats but do little to improve student achievement. National standards create a one-size-fits-all, centralized approach to education. And while proponents will say that these standards are ‘voluntary,’ the significant amount of federal funding that would be tied to their adoption makes them anything but.”

Related:

Christian Science Monitor: “Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the so-called Common Core standards, which were released in the spring. Several more were poised to do so by early August. Some 40 states are likely to have signed on by next spring. The rush to acceptance has surpassed the wildest hopes of many education reformers, even as it alarms those who see common standards as usurping local control and a bad idea.”

Thomas B. Fordham Institute Study: The State of State Standards–and the Common Core–in 2010

The Common Core Curriculum
Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli, National Review Online