Acting Secretary of Education John King promised Thursday no one in the Department of Education will push states to adopt or keep Common Core.
Speaking at King’s confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., asked King if the department would uphold the letter of the law on Common Core. The Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan education law signed by President Obama in December 2015, prohibits the Department of Education from pushing states to adopt Common Core or any other education standards.
“The language says, ‘No officer or employee of the federal government, including the secretary, shall attempt to influence, condition, incentivize or coerce state adoption of the Common Core state standards or any other academic standards common to a significant number of states or assessments tied to such standards,'” Roberts said. “I know that we may again have differences, but nevertheless will you give us your commitment that you will respect the intent as well as the explicit and binding letter of that prohibition?”
“Absolutely,” King said.
Before he could elaborate, Roberts said, “Thank you, that’s all I needed.” Throughout the two-hour nomination hearing, that was the only time King was questioned on Common Core.
Under Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, states were pressured to adopt Common Core in two ways. First, adoption helped states score better in the Race to the Top competitive grant system. Second, as the federal penalties of No Child Left Behind became progressively more unreasonable each year, Duncan granted waivers from those penalties. Both those options appear to be off the table thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Common Core has been rolled back in many states. In some states, politicians claim the standards have been repealed, but the substance of Common Core remains under a different name. In other states, the standards have been repealed but students, teachers and schools are still evaluated by tests that are aligned to Common Core.
King became acting Secretary of Education in January 2016, when Duncan retired.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
