Common Core Foe Ted Yoho Looks to End Race to the Top

U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., is calling for the elimination of the federal Race to the Top Fund (RTT), insisting that program takes educational power away from parents and puts it in the hands of the federal government. Yoho sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the committee.

RTT was established initially as a federal incentive for the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to voluntarily adopt Common Core education standards, Yoho said on Friday. All states that adopt Common Core State Standards compete for grant money based on a point system. If states agree to adopt the secretary of educations standards, they are awarded additional points, thus tipping the scale in favor of those states. This is nothing more than an attempt from the administration to coerce states into implementing federal standards. Parents and educators should be making the decisions that shape the curriculum for our children, not the U.S. Department of Education.