White House May Get Involved In Texas Textbook Deliberations

From FOX News and The Patriot Update:

Texas Textbook Wars: Could Obama Intervene?


May 19, 2010 - 12:00 PM
by: James Rosen

While parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians in Texas clash over the content of students' textbooks in the Lone Star state, the Obama administration is quietly expanding the reach of the federal government into local education -- with results to be cheered or feared, depending on your political philosophy.



The agenda set by the president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a friend of Mr. Obama and former chief of the Chicago public school system, is undeniably bold. It encompasses not only the $4.3 billion "Race to the Top" fund, which encourages competition for federal funds, but also an effort called the Common Core State Standards Initiative.



Here, the Obama administration is working with governors from forty-eight states and other leaders to develop standards in English -- or "language arts," as you may recall it from your own school days -- and mathematics, for students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.



"These draft standards," notes the initiative's website, "define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs."



The website continues: "States will be asked to adopt the Common Core State Standards in their entirety and the core must represent at least 85% of the state's standards in English language arts and mathematics."



One governor -- a Republican -- told Fox News the core standards will not be "all-inclusive," just a, quote, "basic threshold" for an educated citizenry. "While I strongly believe in states’ rights in education to create their systems, I think it's entirely appropriate, if the federal government is giving money to incentivize, to make sure that we have strong accountable standards in education," said Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia. "I think it's too important for a nation not to do that."



The amount of money that Uncle Sam spends on education is growing. Analysts project that the federal government's share of total education spending will rise, during President Obama's first term, from about 9 percent to 15 percent.



Duncan has said he wants to be "a partner, not a boss," of local educators -- but that he will not remain a "silent partner." Conservatives, who have never been ardent champions of the Education Department, warn that greater federal involvement will lead inexorably to greater federal control -- and not just from bureaucrats, but from the very groups conservatives blame for the great decline in American postwar education: teachers' unions and administrators' associations.



"As the federal government puts more money into education, there's no question but that they're going to demand accountability and oversight for the funds that they're spending," said Terry Hartle of the non-partisan American Council on Education. "We want them to do that; we want, as taxpayers, to make sure our money's being well spent. How many strings come with that oversight and that accountability becomes a very critical question as time goes by."



Some libertarian groups say the evidence is lacking for those policymakers who would propose a "federalized" curriculum -- which the Obama administration has not done. Neal McCluskey of the CATO Institute, for example, wrote recently that there is "very little good, comparative research on national standards," and thus little reason for local educators to embrace them.



And thus little reason for local educators to embrace the core standards program.