Podcast: Neal McCluskey of CATO Discusses Common Core Standards

In debating Common Core standards, or rather the issue of Common Core in general, with members of either party and it will not be long before it becomes apparent that no one knows what they are talking about.

That is not so much a statement meant to undermine, as it is a statement of the difficulty and complication of Common Core standards, which states must comply with those standards, what those states received in return in order to be under the Common Core umbrella, and so on.

Neal McClusky of the CATO Institute, has done fascinating work on the rising cost of public education and how it has coincided with the growth of the administrative bureaucracy – or the “blob.” He has some incredibly interesting, yet simple, points to make regarding Common Core in this podcasts, and if Americans would pay as much attention to the return on their investment from public education as they do in any other area of the economy, then perhaps education would be providing a much higher return.

How would our Founding Fathers react to Common Core, or for that matter the Department of Education?

All I can tell you is that in colonial  New England during the time John Adams was getting his education, there was a three member community-based board of elected officials who ran pretty much every aspect of public education. They each served a three-year term with one member rotating out every year.

The idea was that no one person would stay long enough to establish overly corrupted relationships, which is ultimately how public education has become anything but what is in our kid’s educational interests. On the other hand, there would always be a senior member on the board that had the experience necessary to ensure the proper competent function of government.

Of course, unions were prohibited in colonial American, and indeed, in our young republic.

Enjoy this educational podcast.