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The California Board of Education unanimously voted to adopt the Common Core State Standards education curriculum on Monday. The Common Core Standards, which are voluntarily adopted by states, unifies national education policy, and is preferred by the Obama administration. California is one of 19 states competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Grant money under President Obama’s “Race to the Top” education program. This is widely understood to have motivated the Board of Education’s decision, although converting to Common Core Standards does not guarantee any money. In the competition states are given points in a number of areas according to their compliance with Race to the Top standards. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said the competition sparked a “quiet revolution” across the nation because, as states compete for federal dollars they are making major changes to their education policies. Critics say the competition for federal education money has forced cash-strapped states to make controversial decisions that will exacerbate problems for low-income school districts. A large coalition of civil rights groups has publicly criticized Race to the Top, calling it a “market-based” framework that will lead to the privatization of education. Saying there is “nothing short of a state of emergency in the delivery of education to our nation’s communities of color”, they have introduced an alternative framework. Here to discuss Race to the Top and the movement for an alternative is Paulina Lipman.

GUEST: Pauline Lipman: Professor of Educational Policy Studies, Univ of Ill-Chicago, Director of the Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education, and education activist in Chicago.

Read Pauline Lipman’s article here: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/07/30-11