Common Core is rotten to the core. This is government's massive conformity move to take away local school board authority along with parental authority, and replace it with national educational standards that are antithetical to American ideals and its dreams. This is a nation of fifty states and of numerous communities and cities. Part of what makes America great is its diversity, its heritage, and its individualism. It is a wonderful thing for a group of concerned citizens, or concerned parents, or concerned people in general to get together for a common cause and for common needs. That is part and parcel of what makes a society great, the voluntary getting together of people that aspire to make things better in their community, their schools, and their society.
I have a lot of respect for local school boards that have not been corrupted by federal monies, or federal grants, or federal interference, but strive instead to do right by the student body that they have been given the awesome responsibility to nurture, to develop and to care for. The federal government's deep desire in having all states follow the same educational standards is a corrupting power-play to indoctrinate the youth of America, the future of America, to the federal government's way and there is no other way but their way. That is bad business and bad politics which, if successful will end up subverting the authority of the parents along with marginalizing local school boards.
The education of one's children has historically been a parental responsibility. In colonial times, it most definitely was, and home schooling was thereby the norm, in conjunction with schooling created by local government and its own townspeople. Common Core ignores these historical precedents by believing the lie that one national educational system will work for all of America, all of the time. If this indeed was true, that one size fits all, in every circumstance, and that therefore this would initiate a new revolution of a brave new world, it would have its merits. But it's not true, it's a lie.
The federal government does few things right, and many things wrong, partially wrong, or wholly wrong. Common Core is a mistaken idea, a pathetic reach, and a dangerous precedent, which should be slapped down. The best education has always been one-on-one, that may be hard to find, and difficult to pay for, but there is no better way to educate a mind than a tutor to a pupil. The next best educational system is one in which the players have a vested interest in the success of their pupils; which is any school in which there is an accounting that is done concurrent with the education provided.
As an educational system, any educational system, gets more centralized, more bureaucratic, more about them and less about those that are being educated, the education experience itself disintegrates. Federal controlled education is one step away from federal controlled groupthink.
Nobody cares more about your child than you do as a parent. As a parent, you will do things for your child that no self-serving bureaucrat would even consider doing. The bureaucrat cares only for himself and the federal government only for what sort of utility that they can exploit from your child. You, as a parent, care for the content of your child's character.