States Rights Not Reason to Dump Common Core

Would you ask what I think of Common Core?

To be truthful, I perhaps do not know much about Common Core. I know it is a program that sets standards for education. It seeks to spell out and specify some of the things students should be learning. I know it is a program the governors' association -- that would be the National Governors Association -- came up with. Well, the NGA and another group, the Council for Chief State School Officers, came up with it.

I've heard some states rights advocates oppose Common Core, wanting Utah to not be guided by a national agenda. From what little I know, the program is not being run out of the federal Department of Education.

Even if Common Core were a federal program, though, I would not be too quick to oppose it on that basis. If it is a good program, I'd say why not let it stay? Opposing a program just because of who came up with it doesn't seem the best way to decide if it is good. If you are concerned that it isn't a state program and you do not want something with such national flavor (45 of the 50 states are signed into Common Core), take what is good about the program and create and run your own state version. (That might mean letting go of some good resources from the NGA and CCSSO, though.)

Judge the program on its own merits. I may be with the Article I, Section 8, and 10th Amendment folks on some things, but I am not ready to ax Common Core based on those two parts of our Constitution.