Refuting Common Core's "National Standard" Argument

By Douglas V. Gibbs

We have heard the horror stories about Common Core.  One of the college degrees my wife has is in mathematics, yet she could not figure out how to help our First Grader grandson with his homework.  The situation revealed to her what the design of Common Core is all about.  If she could not help him, his only choice for help was to appeal to The State System, creating a greater dependency upon government, and less upon family.

This article, however, is not about the ridiculous math standards, reading standards that eliminate the classics, writing standards that have abandoned teaching cursive, and history that has distorted reality into something no historian would recognize as the truth.  Those are all important issues regarding Common Core that we need to be aware of, but those are just the symptoms.  The reality of what Common Core is goes deeper than that, and can be discovered through the primary argument that those who support Common Core use.

"Don't you want a national standard, so that we can properly gauge our students' progress?"

The "national standard" argument follows an age-old statist premise that claims "without the federal government controlling something, the issue will spiral into pure chaos."  The States can't be trusted, individuals can't be trusted.  Only the federal government can ensure something will happen, and happen properly.

The "federal government alone is capable" argument is not only false, but dangerous, and illegal.

The United States Constitution created the federal government not so that it could mettle in local issues, like education, but to handle the external issues like common defense, and disputes between the States regarding issues like commerce.  Education, from a Constitutional perspective, is a local issue, or more specifically, a State issue.  The federal government has no authority to be involved in education, much less to create a "national standard."

Historically, tyrannies seek national standards, so that they may quash individualism, and raise the children up to become loyal to the national government.  Indoctrination, one may call it.  Tyrants know that the older generation will eventually pass away, and if they can train the children to be loyal to the system, the system's control over the population will be easier.

When someone argues, "Don't you want a national standard," my response is an immediate, "No."

A national standard is unconstitutional, and a centralized standard is simply a tool for tyranny to gain control over our children, and ultimately for the system to stamp out individualism.

Oh, and by the way, government control over public education is also the 10th Plank of the Communist Manifesto.

Thanks, but no thanks.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary