Congressman Phil Gingrey, MD Georgia's 11th district

Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D., today introduced theEducational Freedom Act, which would ensure that the federal government is prohibited from directly or indirectly mandating state and local academic standards and curricula.

“We can’t continue to allow the Obama Administration to strong-arm our state into accepting its one-size-fits-all education plan,” said Gingrey. “Conditioning federal funding from the Race to the Top Fund and No Child Left Behind waivers is nothing more than a political tactic to let federal bureaucrats into schools with the intention of establishing a federal curriculum. This bill is critical to protecting the future of our children by ensuring that local educators and parents – not Washington paper-pushers – are the ones making classroom decisions.”

Background:
Common Core was initially developed in 2009 by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers as a set of education standards that states’ could voluntarily adopt. However, the Obama Administration and Education Secretary Arne Duncan used the Race to the Top Fund to encourage and incentivize states to adopt the standards. Furthermore, the Department of Education used waivers from certain provisions of No Child Left Behind as a means to coerce states to adopt Common Core.

Last July, Georgia announced it would not offer the standardized assessment tied to Common Core, citing cost concerns. In August, Governor Deal ordered a review of Common Core standards and asked the State Board of Education to formally un-adopt parts of the program.