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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Arne Duncan To Defend Common Core, Call Tea Party Critiques 'Outlandish'

Arne Duncan To Defend Common Core, Call Tea Party Critiques 'Outlandish':

Arne Duncan To Defend Common Core, Call Tea Party Critiques 'Outlandish'

Over the last few months, the louder critics of the Common Core learning standards have associated the initiative with varying degrees of evil: vampireszombies, brain trackingHitler.

In a Washington, D.C. speech to the American Society of News Editors Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to add one more to the list.

"Traditionally, this event has been an opportunity for federal leaders to talk about touchy subjects," Duncan will say, according to prepared remarks. "For example, you asked President Kennedy to talk about the Bay of Pigs. So, thanks for having me here to talk about the Common Core State Standards."

Duncan will say that the standards are "under attack," call on the editors gathered to separate fact from fiction, and label some of the initiative's critics "fringe groups."

The Common Core is a set of learning standards that 45 states and Washington, D.C., agreed to. The standards, developed by governors, policymakers and teachers organized by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and with funding from the Gates Foundation, are supposed to