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Silence on standards doesn’t mean acceptance

It is understandable that a state education bureaucrat would deem it “a positive thing” that no members of the general public showed up for a hearing on Maine’s possible adoption of the Common Core national education standards. (“Public quiet on new proposed state education standards,” Aug. 31.)

Public noninvolvement certainly makes life easier for public officials. They don’t have to prepare transcripts, answer questions or justify their positions.

Silence, however, hardly equates to acceptance. Those who drafted these national standards behind closed doors have done little or nothing to solicit public input.

Indeed, the building blocks of a national curriculum are in the process of going into effect via a collaboration of powerful interests — not least being the federal government — with everyday parents and teachers on the outside looking in, largely clueless.

When local citizens discover that they will be taxed to support nationalized education offering classroom lessons over which they have no influence, town hall meetings around the country will be jam-packed. It is only a matter of time.



Robert Holland

Senior Fellow for Education Reform

The Heartland Institute

Chicago