Columnist Refutes View Of Common Core As Federal Takeover

In a column in the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal (10/10), Laura Ofobike writes at length about the relative quality of the US education system, and laments that the Common Core Standards are being represented by opponents as "nationalized" education standards. "For much of the past two decades, corporate executives in business and manufacturing, among others, complained about the high school diploma not being what it used to be, about graduates falling short of employer and college demands, of American teenagers losing academic ground to peers in other industrialized countries. ... The concern to lift up the game continues to inform a variety of reform efforts, from federal legislation such as President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, to voluntary initiatives like the Common Core Standards, developed by governors and state school superintendents." She notes that the Obama Administration's support for the Common Core is "enough to tag it a federal 'takeover' of education and one more reason to neuter the Department of Education."