Bloviating on school testing

In brief, the fuss is this:
Every state has its own education standards that are outlined by subject and grade level. The federal government is looking to put every state on the same page by creating national standards. This would ensure that a child in Alabama is learning te same material as a student in Massachusetts, Nebraska, Alaska, etc. This would also lead to federal standardized testing as opposed to state tests such as the MCAS. States who participate recieve desperately needed federal funding.

Two of the primary opposing arguments are these:
1. Education has long been considered a state issue. Turning over control to the federal government makes people nervous about losing state power. Also, many conservatives fear "commie liberalism" being put into the curriculum (see the Texas history textbook incident a month or so back).

2. Massachusetts standards far exceed the proposed federal ones, particularly in math, and people are nervous that we may opt to dumb down our curriculum to recieve funding.