Jeff Duncan Goes After Common Core
U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) has followed the lead of liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (RINO-S.C.) in sponsoring a non-binding congressional resolution condemning Common Core.
Duncan’s says his resolution stems from “concerns I hear from parents when I’m traveling across (South Carolina’s third congressional) district.”
“Parents and teachers alike are alarmed by this top-down approach to education that wrongly ties education money for states to the adoption of academic standards that do not fully reflect the values of South Carolina,” Duncan said. “Beyond the most important constitutional issues with federal education standards, many education leaders have been raising concerns with the content of the standards themselves.”
“Common Core” is an ostensibly a “voluntary” and “state-driven” process of setting new academic benchmarks for America’s school children. In reality, though, it is a massive federal overreach – one foisted on states under the guise of competing for federal education dollars.
So what’s the point of a non-binding resolution? Well … other than Duncan tapping into GOP activist angst, obviously.
“Congress can’t pass a law banning states from taking up voluntary standards,” Duncan’s spokesman Allen Klump explained. “We want to get involved in encouraging states not to adopt these standards – while eliminating the federal coercion that strong arms them into adopting them.”
According to Klump, Duncan is also working with lawmakers in Washington to zero out funding for U.S. Department of Education programs that are contingent on states adopting Common Core.
State leaders have also been adamant in their opposition to Common Core.
“New Common Core educational standards are being implemented in South Carolina and in 44 other states this year,” S.C. Sen. Larry Grooms wrote recently. “Under the Common Core Initiative we abdicated our state’s responsibility to our children by giving unelected Washington bureaucrats the right to decide what is taught in our schools. A progressive liberal worldview permeates the Common Core standards which will now be used to indoctrinate our kids. We must stop the Common Core and restore educational responsibility to the states.”