At a time when conservatives regularly promote limited government and condemn further encroachment by the federal government into the nation’s health insurance system, the last thing they should be doing is lending support to a program that will increase the government’s role in citizens’ lives. Unfortunately, that is exactly what one noted conservative is doing when it comes to education in America. Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Chester Finn encourages conservatives to follow his lead in endorsing the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), a set of national education standards developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. CCSSI will be the bridle by which the federal government controls schools that willingly accept Race to the Top Fund sugar. According to the National Association of State Boards of Education the Obama administration is supporting this initiative to develop common standards by allocating part of the billion “Race to the Top” funds towards the common core initiative, including $350 million for the development of common assessments. In pitching CCSSI to conservatives, Finn noted that CCSSI emerged not from the federal government but a voluntary coming together of (most) states, and the states’ decision whether

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