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Comment by 24gttghh | Hacker News Reader

What exactly do you find wrong with Common Core standards? All I've seen against it are poorly-graded homework examples turned meme without proper context.

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I think it's extremely dangerous when the federal government dictates almost all aspects of how people should lead their lives especially when it comes to education where there's always a threat of indoctrination on large scale. Communities should be able to set their own standards. People aren't as dumb as that; such that federal government shepherding is required at every turn.

Common Core was neither developed nor mandated by the federal government, it is adopted as a mandate by numerous states independently, and developed as an initiative sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The federal government dictates very little of the substance of what is taught in schools.

True and thank the Almighty for that, but the general direction is towards that. The main issue of contention here is centralization. Once that is done, it becomes easier for the federal govt to take it over. I don't want anything that remotely resembles that.

> the general direction is towards that.

What general direction? What are the specific examples of this general direction?

U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the Race to the Top competitive grants on July 24, 2009, as a motivator for education reform. To be eligible, states had to adopt "internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the work place."[15] Though states could adopt other college- and career-ready standards and still be eligible, they were awarded extra points in their Race to the Top applications if they adopted the Common Core standards by August 2, 2010.

Until the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed in December 2015, the US Department of Education had encouraged states to adopt the Common Core Standards by tying the grant of waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act to adoption of the Standards.

Yes, the States were offered extra funding for adopting the Common Core. They were not forced to take it, but who doesn't want a few million dollars, right?

Doesn't the federal government have enough on its plate? It seems like this insatiable beast that won't stop until it has taken over every last bit of personal liberty and freedom including what and how to think. That is the fear.

People truly are "that dumb" at the community level- at least the sorts of people elected to local educatipn boards. Even at the state level, we've seen disastrous anti-evolution, anti-climate change education agendas attempted to be pushed through, not to mention highly politicized conservative historical revisionism, just within the last 16 years. Common core is a good idea for several reasons, not least that.

If you think they are dumb, that's your opinion. Let them live their lives without your wisdom and you live yours without theirs.

Ideas (you can call them opinions if you'd like, it makes no difference) backed by scientific inquiry, consensus, and fact are the ones we should be teaching, end of story. The educational system is an intrinsic aspect of our society and has an enormous impact on the well-being of our societies and planet. It's am essential life goal of mine and of many others in science to work to improve and protect it. People opposed to an educational system that values scientific thinking and literacy have lost battles for the last 600 years and will continue to do so.

The federal government doesn't dictate common core. You're either uninformed or using alternative facts.

They did, until recently. Until 12/2015 the federal department of education withheld some funding from schools that didn't use it. The situation is explained more fully here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_State_Standards_In....

That means that they endorsed it, but they didn't write it.

In a criminal trial, a judge endorses (and enforces) a jury's verdict, but he doesn't dictate it.

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