Frederick Hess, executive editor of Education Next, wrote on his personal blog about the ominous political trend for the Common Coreites. It seems as though they are unaware of the trouble ahead. He writes about the involvement of the Obama administration which has muddied the waters, the lack of enthusiasm by most Republicans except a few, namely Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels, and the pushback seen in Utah, Indiana, and with ALEC firming up its opposition the standards seemed doomed, but the Common Coreites don’t seem to get it.
Hess writes:
Now, it’s easy for Common Core sophisticates, the Department of Ed, enthusiastic funders, and the “reform” community to dismiss all of this–after all, the only conservative most of them know or respect is Jeb Bush, and he’s with them. The Common Core’ites may find it easy to pooh-pooh such concerns as ideological, insignificant, misguided, and unserious. That’s their prerogative, but I think they’re misreading how this is going to affect the willingness of state leaders to secure broad-based support for the spending, assessment adoptions, and related measures it’ll take to successfully implement the Common Core.
With all the challenges ahead for the Common Core, including the legislative and state board decisions needed to support and finance implementation and the pushback emerging from certain precincts on the left, the exercise will only prove viable if it’s a bipartisan project. And, at least for now, looks like the odds of that are growing worse by the day.
Good! Be sure to read the whole article.