By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Donald Trump vowed to scrap Common Core if elected to the White House, but supporters and critics alike agree the incoming president has little, if any, power over the education standards that already are in place across the vast majority of states.
Making good on his campaign promise to get rid of the standards — which he repeated throughout the GOP primary and general-election campaign — would depend almost entirely on Mr. Trump using his bully pulpit to convince states to dump Common Core, scholars say. The nature of the system gives virtually all authority to the states, and a Trump administration will face an uphill climb in convincing many of those states to abandon the standards.
“I don’t think there’s a federal lever there, and many of us made this point throughout the campaign that we’re not sure why Donald Trump thinks he can [eliminate Common Core]. This is not a promise he’s going to be able to keep,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a leading education think tank, adding that Mr. Trump also would run into philosophical problems in telling states what to do with education policy.
“Does he tell states they should get rid of Common Core? That causes some heartache for conservatives from a federalism perspective,” Mr. Petrilli added.
Common Core, which does not constitute a strict federal curriculum but instead established baseline standards in math, English and other subjects that all students are expected to meet, now is in place in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina initially adopted the standards but later opted out.
Leaders in other states, such as Kentucky, also have signaled they want to remove their schools from Common Core.