Sen. Grassely on Education

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley: 

‘Feds Implementing Common Core Through Bribery’

May 10, 2014 By Jennifer Burke

The Common Core attempted hijacking of the American educational system has come under great scrutiny and criticism since it was first revealed. People like Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Jeb Bush like to frame it as a grassroots movement and local initiative. However, if you connect the dots of federal money used in the way of bribes, you see that the federal government has its hands all over Common Core implementation, which represents a continued takeover of education by progressives.  

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley recently joined Tim Constantine on TPNN.com’s The Capitol Hill Show to discuss Common Core.

Grassley is a strong opponent to Common Core who is vocal about why he believes it will move American education in the wrong direction. Stating that concerns about Common Core are very often brought up to him by constituents, he firmly believes that, due to the uniqueness and differences among communities, the federal government has no business infringing, counter to the Tenth Amendment, on the education system.  

Speaking further about this belief, Grassley said,

Both constitutionally and from a practical standpoint, I believe the policy on education should be made at the state capitols or the local districts, not in Washington, DC. I think that’s backed up by the 10thAmendment. The practical reason for doing it is that our country is so geographically vast and our population so heterogeneous that policy made in Washington, D.C. doesn’t fit New Hartford, Iowa where I’m from the same as New York City.

The one-size fits all approach is not appropriate, Grassley believes, based upon the differences between parts of the country and between different parts of the country.

Tim then asks Grassley to expand on a letter that he has written to ask the federal government to stop the practice of bribing school districts with taxpayer money for programs such as Race to the Top. Tim inquired why this type of ‘bribing’ is a bad idea.

Grassley responded that, in addition to all of his other concerns shared earlier, the practice of bribing districts with taxpayer money leads to resentment over the indirect attempt to establish a curriculum and policy using taxpayer money. 

The discussion then turned to the federal government’s attempt to do more than just bribe schools, but to ‘twist their arm’ in as a way to force them to comply. Tim posed the following to Grassley: “There seems to be arm-twisting coming out of Washington that if you do not adopt the standards, then you will be penalized. Is there an effort in the Senate to repeal this?” 

Grassley was very specific with his answer in calling out the dirty tactics used by the government to enhance compliance. 

That’s exactly what happened. In order to get Common Core adopted quickly in the 50 states, it was tied to Race to the Top money. A lot of states thought they would get a lot of money. Not more than a dozen actually did.  But, they accepted the principle of Common Core. Also, if states wanted waivers from No Child Left Behind, it also involved Common Core. From that standpoint, it’s the pressure of Washington to bring about Common Core as a national approach. Quite frankly, it shouldn’t have been done that way. 

Let’s allow people to make up their minds about the substance of Common Core. If states want to adopt it, that’s their business. But, it shouldn’t be crammed down their throat by the Secretary of Education in Washington, D.C. using federal money.

Beyond the further overreach of the federal government into education with Common Core, there has been concern around the country regarding the lessons. Tim asked,  “Who is it that crafted the content of Common Core?” 

Senator Grassley exposed the twisted lies used to sell Common Core and exactly who was not fully involved in the process. 

The idea was to make it look like it was very local and brought up from the grassroots through the governor’s association and the national organization of chief state’s school officers. You’ve got to remember, they are based in Washington DC and they got involved because there were other movements to establish a national curriculum that weren’t moving fast enough. So, they adopted this and, to make it look like it was state oriented and coming from the grassroots up, I think maybe it’s easier to sell that until you start looking into where the roots of it happened, basically here in Washington, D.C.

I don’t think the governors and chief state’s school officers were as involved as they want us to believe. Even if they were, the fact that its tied to federal dollars and having the federal government having conditions for those federal dollars adopting Common Core, you get back to the establishment of curriculum based upon national testing. In the end, subverting the Tenth Amendment and usurping what is definitely not just a constitutional state right, but as a practical matter ought to be a state right. 

Closing out the segment, the discussion turns to what would happen if the Department of Education were eliminated completely at the federal level. Would that be a positive or a negative for children around the United States?

LISTEN to Senator Grassley’s full interview as well as his response to that proposition.