As proponents pushed national curriculum standards — the Common Core — a few years ago, one of the arguments they employed was that it just doesn’t make sense to have 50 state standards instead of one national set. What they never adequately explained is why that is, probably because there is no compelling reason that national should be superior. Indeed, reality demands a move in the opposite direction.
The assumption behind national standardization is that all students, regardless of state residence, should be able to do the same things at the same time. That ignores basic reality: states have different populations and challenges. Some are industrial, others rural. Some have large immigrant populations, others don’t. Some start with high average incomes, others low. Having different state standards allows better tailoring to people’s actual needs than nationalization.
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