The federal government has been involved in public education since before the Constitution was ratified. In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (renewed in 1789), the federal government mandated that land in new territories be set aside for the purpose of public education. This ensured that state legislators would have education on their minds when managing the land and distributing funds.
After the Civil War, the federal government pushed to expand public education in the South. The federal impact was most fully felt, however, after World War II. That was when the feds mandated desegregation, leading some states to shut down their schools rather than allow all Americans to attend the same schools. And then, under President Lyndon Johnson, the government started providing federal funds for schools that served underprivileged children.
For most of its history, then, the federal government’s role was to encourage investment and promote equality. It did not enter the classroom. This changed during the 1960s when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed school prayer and the reading of the Bible. Suddenly, the federal government’s role had shifted from the background to foreground.
Yet no federal policies have reached so deeply into classrooms as President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top. Both pressed states to hold schools accountable to national benchmarks. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, established literacy and math standards for K-12 classes in order to ensure that all Americans graduate “college and career ready.” While not technically a federal project, Obama incentivized states to embrace CCSS by linking federal funding to its adoption.
Nicholas Tampio, a political science professor at Fordham, became involved in education when he saw the impact of national standards on his son’s classroom. In his new book, Common Core: National Education Standards and the Threat to Democracy, he offers an important contribution to the conversation on education policy. Trained as a political theorist, Tampio lays out the best arguments for national standards, such as uniformity, equity, and economic preparation, and then provides thoughtful rebuttals. He encourages readers to think through all sides of these arguments for themselves.
At the heart of Tampio’s book is his democratic commitment to pluralism. “Large, pluralistic democracies such as the United States should not adopt national education standards,” Tampio proclaims. Instead democracies must promote “diverse ways of living and thinking” by empowering local citizens and professional teachers to make real choices about what and how to teach. By imposing national standards designed by a small set of elites, the Common Core not only bypassed democratic procedures but, Tampio concludes, “has made education and civic life worse.”