Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo punches a hole through Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's claims that he is opting out of the federal race-to-the-top grant program because it would result in Virginia lowering its state standards:
While states do receive 40 points on their Race to the Top application for adopting the NGA’s standards, the program’s executive summary clearly states that they are a floor, not a ceiling, and that states wishing to put in place more ambitious standards are free to do so:Common set of K-12 standards means a set of content standards that define what students must know and be able to do and that are substantially identical across all States in a consortium. A State may supplement the common standards with additional standards, provided that the additional standards do not exceed 15 percent of the State’s total standards for that content area.
What's really disturbing about this story is that I've heard, almost everywhere, McDonnell making these claims, but I haven't heard anyone pointing out the simple fact that this is ridiculous. Of course states are able to go above the federal standards; that's usually how it works. As Garofalo notes, Virginia wasn't doing particularly well in its application, so the opting out seems more like a cover story that makes a loser look like a winner. And McDonnell has a complicit press in helping spin this into an anti-federalist stand.
-- Monica Potts
