John Barrasso on Education Republican Jr Senator

Local control is paramount for improving education

Parents & teachers decide about schools, not bureaucrats

Block funding for Common Core; it's too heavy-handed.

Letter to the Senate Subcommittee on Labor Health and Human Services, and Education: `Eleven U.S. senators signed a letter asking Senate appropriators to block the use of funding to the Education Department to promote the Common Core education standards. The senators wrote a letter asking for appropriations legislative language `to restore state decision-making and accountability with respect to state academic content standards.` Text of the letter:`

While the Common Core State Standards Initiative was initially billed as a voluntary effort between states, federal incentives have clouded the picture. The selection criteria designed by the U.S. Department of Education for the Race to the Top (RTTT) Program provided that for a state to have a reasonable chance to compete for funding, it must adopt a `common set of K-12 standards` matching the description of the Common Core.