Massachusetts School Moves to Scrap New Federal Education Standards

Can you believe this is happening in Massachusetts? A local school is fighting the federal government's new education standards. Opponents of the new federal standards claim the new standards delivered by the Obama administration will dumb down their school and force their taxes upwards. Tantasqua Regional School District appears to be fighting the federal government (big government) with some conservative arguments, and it's happening in one of the most liberal states of all.

“My concerns remain, one, we’re dumbing down state standards; two, the increased costs on schools because we would have to have a new curriculum, a new testing; and, the third, you’re letting a bunch of faceless federal bureaucrats technically set the standards for all the schools in Massachusetts,” said Tantasqua Regional School District School Committee member James A. Cooke of Brookfield.

“I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the students at Tantasqua or even the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (to adopt the National Educational Standards). Massachusetts students fare better on classic achievement tests than students from any other state, so why would we want to go backward?”

Mr. Cooke, I agree with you on all those arguments, but you may want to add the federal government has no Constitutional authority to tell your district how to run its schools. That's a states' rights issue. I personally don't blame you for wanting to push the federal government out of your school after its long list of failed federal programs, most recently, No Child Left Behind.