Resolution Opposing Federal Intrusion in State Education Content Standards
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Summary
The Resolution Opposing Federal Intrusion in State Education Content Standards affirms that states, districts and schools, not the federal government, should determine academic standards and how they are implemented, including through curriculum, instructional materials, assessments and professional development. It opposes federal efforts to prescribe standards or override a state’s education decisions and supports returning authority over education to the states.Model Resolution
WHEREAS, education is inherently a state issue since those closest to students—local schools, districts and states—have always been best equipped to make appropriate educational decisions, including choosing academic content standards; and
WHEREAS, states began working together over a decade ago to identify the knowledge and skills in the foundational subjects of English language arts and mathematics necessary to succeed in college and careers after high school; and
WHEREAS, states had been graduating students from high school who were underprepared for the challenges of the real world and an increasingly competitive global economy where education and innovation are key drivers; and
WHEREAS, states, working with their own higher education and business communities to set high standards for high school completion, found those standards were becoming increasingly common across state lines; and
WHEREAS, It is the responsibility of states, districts and schools to implement their chosen standards. Implementation includes, but is not limited to, choosing curriculum, textbooks and other classroom materials, assessments and professional development. These choices are solely the prerogative of states, districts and schools; and
WHEREAS, Any federal government action, through administrative fiat or congressional act, to dictate or prescribe a particular set of academic content standards—or to dictate how such standards are implemented—is an intrusion into the states’ long-established rights and responsibilities to deliver K–12 education which violates fundamental principles of federalism; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the [legislative body] vigorously opposes any effort by the federal government to deny the authority of any state to set its own education academic content standards or to attempt to overturn decisions made duly by a state regarding any education standards deemed by the constitutionally-designated authorities in that state to be in the best interest of that state’s children.