In a piece appearing at The Hill (5/10) "Congress Blog," Bill Evers, who served as US Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, and former ED officials Kent Talbert and Robert Eitel, write that ED is pushing for "a national K-12 curriculum for English and mathematics," but is "acting at cross-purposes with existing federal statutes, and, as their initiative becomes better known, it may bring out a multitude of opponents." The writers argue that there is no obvious legal mandate for such a national curriculum from ED, adding that "federal control of what students learn in school certainly does not comport with the balance between national and state responsibilities in America's federal system." The writers lament that when Education Secretary Arne Duncan "announced the Department's grants to the testing groups on September 2, 2010, he pointed enthusiastically to one group 'developing curriculum frameworks and ways to share great lesson plans' and the other group developing 'instructional modules.'"
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