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Delayed Math

Common Core will delay Algebra I until 10th grade, bypassing a presidential panel's recommendation that it be studied in eighth grade.

Literature Loser

Common Core will reduce the classic literature that Massachusetts students will read by 60 percent, to make room for more informational texts (non-fiction).

Government Overreach

Common Core was developed by a group of Washington, D.C. education trade organizations and imposed on the states by the federal government through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top (RttT) initiative.

Excess Spending

The Obama administration’s Race to the Top (RttT) initiative gave out more than $4 billion in federal grants, in addition to spending more than $360 million to fund two consortia that have developed national Common Core-based assessments.

Huge Costs

Aligning state and local educational systems to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math will cost the states that have adopted them nearly $16 billion over seven years.

State Resistance

The Common Core-aligned Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a testing consortia originally boasting 25 participating states and DC, now has at most 7 states and DC.

The Education Department is pretending that three laws do not mean what they clearly say. This is documented in the Pioneer Institute’s report “The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers” by Robert S. Eitel, Kent D. Talbert and Williamson M. Evers, all former senior officials in the Education Department.

George Will, nationally syndicated columnist
"Obama’s Disregard for Those Pesky Things Called Laws" - The Washington Post

For decades, the independent, libertarian-leaning Pioneer Institute has loomed large in Massachusetts policy debates. Now, it has a national profile as the brains of the Common Core opposition.

Joanna Weiss, columnist
“Will Pioneer Institute Knock Out Common Core?” - The Boston Globe

The Common Core standards were generally adopted by governors’ offices and state boards of education eager for Race to the Top money. The state legislatures that fund American K-12 education were largely bypassed.

Jamie Gass and Charles Chieppo, Pioneer Institute
"Common Core Education Is Uncommonly Inadequate" - The Wall Street Journal

The Common Core State Standards Initiative was supposed to be a voluntary effort between states, but federal incentives have distorted the normal state decision-making process.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley
Preface, "A Republic of Republics: How Common Core Undermines State and Local Autonomy over K-12 Education"

Common Core proposes that we cut back on useless appendages like Dickens and Wharton and Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain in exchange for global awareness, media literacy, cross-cultural flexibility and adaptability…The Common Core approach looks to me like an apology for muddle-headed mediocrity.

Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld
2013 Pioneer Institute forum on education reform

News And Updates

The latest on Common Core

Join us and help stop the spread of Common Core!

    Drilling Through the Core

    Why Common Core is Bad for American Education

    Drilling Through The CORE by the Pioneer Institute
    The National Debate

    Pioneer Institute provides a comprehensive overview of the ongoing debate over national academic standards known as Common Core.

    Independent Research

    One of the only independent sources of information on the topic, Pioneer's new book offers peer-reviewed research not funded by those with a pre-determined view of Common Core.

    Reviewing the Standards

    The book examines Common Core's mathematics and English standards and their impact on students' college readiness.

    Cost and Legal Implications

    Drilling through the Core details the price tag of full Common Core implementation, and examines the constitutionally-questionable process by which states adopted the standards.

    More Information