EDITORIAL

Jul 29, 2010 — Boston Herald

Jul. 29, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- So Massachusetts is officially a finalist in the second round of the Race to the Top competition for federal education funding. That is indeed good news, since it could mean up to $250 million to support K-12 education.

And it's true that the competition prompted the commonwealth to adopt some important educational reforms this year, including an expansion of charter schools and new powers to intervene in underperforming schools.

But let's not forget that we sold a piece of our educational soul to get to this point, too.

Yes, by agreeing to surrender control of our K-12 educational standards in math and English to a federal consortium -- known as the Common Core initiative -- Massachusetts is expected to recover valuable points it lost during the first phase of Race to the Top.

And while the the Patrick administration insists the national standards match or exceed our own, our concern is for how long. From this point forward the state will have to turn over its best-in-the-nation standards to what amounts to groupthink.

We may score in this round of the competition. But it will come with a price.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0423-47418035