March 9, 2011 10:32AM 

# Not Possible in This Dimension 

By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) 

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Over at the Fordham Institute, Senior Fellow Peter Meyer continues the [assault on logic ](https://www.cato.org/unfortunately-one-mans-paranoia-is-everyone-elses-reality/)that Fordham has insisted on perpetrating when it comes to national curriculum standards. [Writing about ](http://www.educationgadfly.net/flypaper/2011/03/a-times-torrent-on-teachers/)a *New York Times* story on the [deceptive curriculum “guidelines” manifesto ](https://www.cato.org/hey-national-curriculum-standardizers-stop-lying-to-us/)released by a number of national-standards supporters earlier this week, Meyer declares that:

> Contrary to popular belief (especially in some Tea Party circles), a national curriculum, done properly, does not threaten local control. As we learn in this story, plenty of folks, including Randi Weingarten and our own Checker Finn, have signed on to a “common curriculum,” which its proponents say will constitute only about half of a school’s “academic time.”

Maybe I’m missing some very small but incredibly powerful wrinkle in the logic here, but it seems to me that *by definition* forcing *local* districts to use *national* standards *must* threaten local control. Indeed, it must not only threaten it, it must actually *defeat* it. And this is in no way changed by the curriculum having to account for “only about half” of a school’s time: Hours formerly controlled locally are now controlled nationally, which is inescapably a major incursion on local control.

Maybe in some dimension white is black, black is white, and ants are really walruses. But in this dimension, as far as I know, the laws of reality and logic must still apply — even to national curriculum standards.

##### Related Tags 

[Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) 

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