It certainly seems like we have never seen so much objection and hostile to Washington. As Washington and its politicians overreach and over demand relative to Constitutional limitations, the rest of the country has pushed back on a number of major issues:
- Obama Care
- Medicaid Expansion
- Gun Control
- Common Core
- Spying on Citizens
Let’s take an inventory of the latest rebellious acts underway around the country, following up on the first half of our update from yesterday:
1) Across the country, school boards and states are dropping out of all or some of the components of Washington’s Common Core curriculum. Common Core thinks that every kid in every school in every part of the country has to be taught the exact same way, the way that bureaucrats in Washington dictate. That top down approach never works and is forcing some school districts and states to push back and say thanks but no thanks to Common Core
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett issued a press release that called for “continued public review” of Common Core’s standards and ordering the state’s education department to carry out just such a review. Previously, Corbett had defended Pennsylvania’s educational independence by implementing a modified Pennsylvania Core rather than the standard Common Core.
The press release positioned Corbett’s decision as “the final phase in his nearly three year effort to permanently roll back the national Common Core plan implemented by his predecessor, Gov. Ed Rendell.” Corbett characterized Common Core as “nothing more than Obama Care for education.” Given how poorly Obama Care has operated, I can think of no bigger insult of any government program than to compare it to the pitifully designed, implemented, and operated Obama Care processes.
But Corbett is not blazing new ground in telling Washington to pound sand when it comes to educating our kids. Several state governors and legislature including Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Pat McCrory of North Carolina have already signed legislation that repealed or significantly modified Common Core in their states.
Additionally, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has implemented several lawsuits against the Federal government and his own state school board seeking to abolish Common Core standards in his state. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Gary Herbert of Utah have called for a reexamination of the standards as well.
Thus, you have at least a half dozen states pushing back on the dictates of the Federal government as it applies to our kids' education. One of the reasons for such rebellion could be the fact that the curriculum is not that good. Consider what happened to test scores in the state of Maryland, which has been operating under Common Core guidelines and tenets for several years:


This chart from the Washington Post shows that in the first several years after Maryland went to Common Core standards, fewer and fewer Maryland kids passed the assessment test for math and reading vs. prior to Common Core. In fact, prior to Common Core’s introduction year of 2012, test results were actually improving over time for Maryland kids. Common Core hits, and test results dramatically plummet within two years.
I am not an education expert. I am not a Common Core expert. But I can read a chart and this chart is not good news for Common Core and that is why many states are pushing back and ignoring another Washington program, not for political reasons, but for common sense reasons and the downwards trends in this chart.
Life lesson: just because Washington thinks it is good, does not make it good.
2) Back in late June, 2014, the Heritage Foundation website reported on the fact that the state of Tennessee had dropped out of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing consortium aligned to the Common Core national education standards. At that time, Heritage reported that Tennessee was joining the ranks of 18 other states pushing back against at least some aspects of Common Core.
In June, Governor Bill Haslam, Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman and the chair of the state board of education, Fielding Rolston, sent a letter to PARCC CEO Laura Slover announcing the state’s decision to drop PARCC and re-adopt the old state exam, the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. This letter was done in conjunction with legislation passed by the state legislature and signed by Haslam in May, 2014.
Never have so many states said no to Washington in just two programs, Common Core and Obama Care. And given what we have discussed many times in this blog, these states are probably doing the best thing for their constituents and residents since Obama Care is shaping up as the worst piece of legislation ever enacted by Washington and early results, at least in Maryland, show that Common Core makes kids dumber, not smarter.
That will do it for this month. School lunches, school curriculums, gun control, spying on citizens, Obama Care, the rebellion and push back against an over reaching Federal government and Washington political class is wide and deep and growing. Which always brings us back to the same interesting philosophical discussion: what happens when Washington says do something and the rest of the country simply ignores the demand? Interesting times.
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