Texas says NO to millions of government grants!

Texas's Governor Rick Perry has declined being part of the Race to the Top competition organized by the Obama administration and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Basically, this competition is an effort to standardize all school curriculum across the nation. Currently, each state has the power to implement and govern their own school systems. With this new effort, every state will have the same curriculum requirements and education will be much more uniformed in the whole nation. Texas and Alaska do no wish to support this effort as they are worried about losing that autonomy.

Governor Rick Perry, Texas

Personally, I think it is about high time that we, as a nation, adopt a common standard of education. This will help ensure that the standard of education is at least at a certain level. Recently, I was doing research into what types of textbooks and curriculum each state uses. It was a MESS! First, it was hard to find information as even within each state, different school districts can use different textbooks and methods of teaching. I even found extremely different curriculum taught when I compared several states' curriculum. It's no wonder U.S. kids do not score as well in international asssessment tests. Because of all the different systems and standards of education, there is no sure way we can identify why certain students may be lacking and how to improve the education system in the U.S. as a whole. Sure, the Obama administration may or may nome up with a perfect solution, but least it's a step forward in the right direction. In my opinion, there should be a national education committee with representatives from each state as part of that committee. This way, each state will still have a say in our country's education system and with more minds, there will be more opportunities for brainstorms, and hopefully a much better standard of education as a whole. What do you guys think of this issue?