A coalition of right-leaning education reformers have recently and sharply broken with the growing federal influence Republicans and Democrats have broadly supported in recent decades. This edusphere tussle connects education to the wider debate Americans (evinced most loudly by Tea Party supporters) have rejoined on the scope and centralization of government power and how it shapes American identity.

The debate over “Common Core” standards recently spattered across education blogs like so many paintballs on a crowded field, yesterday evoking a response from Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The Common Core State Standards are a list of skills and ideas students at every grade level must encounter in states adopting them. They essentially outline the scope, main topics, and learning goals for each grade in language arts, math, history, science, and “technical subjects.”