In its zeal to support the creation of national ELA and math standards, the Obama administration is making strategic mistakes that threaten to bring down that effort altogether. Yesterday no less than President Obama himself announced that his administration will seek to tie eligibility for Title I funding to a state’s having career and college-readiness standards in place. Coming on the heels of the Dept. of Education restricting its Race to the Top funding competition only to states participating in the National Governors Association/Council for Chief State School Officers standards initiative, this sends the clear message that states not willing to adopt these standards are no longer welcome at the department trough. Even for formula funding that they have been receiving for decades.
This is a huge mistake. Not only will tying Title I funding to the standards effort further isolate independent states like Texas and Alaska, which have refused to participate in the standards initiative all along, but the move will also threaten more than a half dozen other states such as Massachusetts, Indiana, and California which have good standards already and for which adopting the new NGA/CCSSO standards might be a close call. States that adopt the standards should be doing so because they improve upon their current standards, not because the federal government is, in effect, forcing their hand.
Folks at NGA and CCSSO—which are, after all, state-based organizations—must realize this. I can only assume that today they are shaking their heads over what their “pals” in the federal government are doing on their behalf. Who needs enemies with friends like these?
Lynne Munson