Arne Duncan Calls Common Core Critics Liars

From the Oregonian:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan emphatically called on education reporters today to truth-squad critics' claims that the federal government is staging a takeover of education by pushing Common Core State Standards, adopted by Oregon and 44 other states.

Such claims are "just not intellectually honest. For journalists, the truth should matter," he said. Speaking of the Common Core standards, Duncan said, "Anyone who says we developed them or mandated them, they are lying."

Duncan made a similar statement back in June:

I believe the Common Core state standards may prove to be the among the most important things to happen to public education in America since Brown versus Board of Education — and the federal government had nothing to do with creating them.

The federal government didn’t write them, didn’t approve them and doesn’t mandate them, and we never will. Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or willfully misleading.

Now — I will tell you what we did do. And then you can do your job by confirming it — and by questioning anyone who says otherwise — because all kinds of people are saying all kinds of things that are simply not true.

When the Obama administration came into office in 2009, the Common Core standards were in development, and gaining momentum. We set out to support states and districts in changing the conditions that were limiting educational opportunity, and raising standards was a vital part of that.

Rick Hess responded to that Duncan speech in June like this:

Duncan offered a slight nod to the role that federal funds, Race to the Top, and ESEA waivers have played in pushing the Common Core forward. He acknowledged that the Obama administration "supported[ed]" and "encouraged" the enterprise. He could have used this as an opportunity to sketch a bright line regarding federal involvement and to convince reasonable skeptics that the feds aren't on a slippery slope. Once again, he passed, saying of the standards: "The federal government didn't write them, didn't approve them and doesn't mandate them, and we never will. Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or willfully misleading." Uhh, hold on now, Sparky. This depends on what the meaning of "approve" and "mandate" is. Duncan certainly made adoption of approved standards a key in Race to the Top and mandatory for obtaining ESEA waivers (and there weren't a lot of options besides Common Core). He's free to argue the semantics of "approve" or "mandate," but he's over the line in asserting that those who disagree are "misinformed or willfully misleading."

Duncan's doing some willful misleading of his own when he says the federal government didn't have something to do with developing and mandating them.

The Common Core State (sic) Standards didn't adopt themselves and you rarely see 45 states do anything in synch like adopting the Common Core without either some carrots or sticks involved.

When it came to Common Core adoption, the Obama administration used both.