Arne Duncan told the nation’s governors yesterday that Title 1 funding going forward would be contingent on adopting the Common Core standards. The feds seem to be mandating a one size fits all program that will be called “College and Career Ready”. Georgia has already done this and it fits no student’s needs well.

It appears that ESEA will be the federal government’s weapon to drive what goes on in the K-12 classroom even though the vast majority of funding will remain state and local.

Maybe Kevin Jennings will be able to impose his vision if he is patient.

Also CCSSO is itself the recipient of federal NSF MSP grant funding so its relationship to the federal government is not exactly that of independent co-levels of government in a federal system.

Also given Kevin Jennings past history of using local schools to impose certain social views whether parents like it or not, it’s not like we can rely on his innate good sense about what’s really appropriate in the schoolplace, even elementary schools.

The federal role on the core standards is this: states that promise to adopt them get added points toward winning a Race to the Top grant. However, they’ve already filed their applications, and they only had to make promises on reading and mathematics. USED can’t add more requirements to that competition, and they won’t get enough money to offer a similar incentive ever again. So Mr. Jennings has no leverage to get the requirement put into state standards.

Meanwhile, the design of the core standards is being done by and for states, by organizations controlled by state officials. If the draft imported a major social agenda beyond literacy, numeracy and a small helping of civics, conservative states would bolt. The coalition is only possible because it is not loaded down with things that cannot get support from the full range of American political settings.

Finally, there is no possibility of the federal government itself setting standards. That’s been discussed for years, and it’s a nonstarter as a legislative issue. Mr. Jennings has no chance at all of getting the votes to force states to add the sort of requirement he has described.

The very real bullying problem will have to be solved by teachers and educators, not by anyone working in a D.C. office building.

That said, I am increasingly outraged by how bullies seem to rule the roost in middle schools. Nice kids live in terror, stay home “sick” and sometimes even withdraw from school, while bullies take a few detentions, an occasional suspension, and carry on with their sadistic sport. They make cruel sport of tormenting many teachers as well –reminds me of bear-baiting.

Government should focus on things that can be influenced by legislation – content rich curricula, high standards for teacher certification, etc. Doing so will do more for improving school climate than any “climate standard” ever could.

I’ve worked at a school where administrators deliberately cooked the books on the number of suspensions so as not to be labelled “persistently dangerous”, so I know that imposing hard number goals around such things is ridiculous.

I do, however, think that schools should be given some kind of descriptive analysis. Parents have a right to know what really goes on in a school.

I’m convinced that if parents knew even half of the stuff that goes on, they’d be motivated to become more involved.