IP-10-1993 (May 1993)
Author: Edward L. Lederman

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In Brief…

Academin Standards Could Fall, While Political Correctness Standards Rise

• House bill 1313 promises to improve educational standards for public scholl students, but will have the opposite effect.

• The bill shifts curricular control towards a state-level bureaucracy, where educrats would outnumber the educators.

• The top-down curriculum and its creators would be weighted towards political correctness rather than to neutral standards of educational excellence.

• Imposing state-wide standards would likely lead to further “dumbing down” of the curriculum, in order that studnets form poorer districts would not be denied high school diplomas.

• As school districts attempted to implement the state-level standards, develop their own alternative standrds, develop thier own alternative standards, and constantly check their progress, educational consultants would have a field day, while educators would once again take a back seat.

• Instead of hoping that more bureaucracy can fix the bureaucratized public schools, Colorado could adopt proposals by California school superintendent Bill Honing, which offer reliable, academically sound methods for shools and students to judge progress.