This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Monday, June 22nd, 2009.

I'm Caleb Brown.

National standards for reading and math are in the works, but creating a national standard may in fact shield states yet

again from being accountable to parents and the competition that now exists among

some states. So says Neil McCluskey, Associate Director of the Cano Institute's Center for Educational

Freedom.

A few months ago, the National Governance Association, the Council of Chief State School

Officers announced that they were

getting together experts and panelists to put together national standards

that states could choose to adopt if they wanted to in math and reading.

And this was a big announcement.

Well a few weeks ago, about 46 state governors and chief school officers said that their

states would participate at least in the drafting of national standards and

this was big news because even two years ago people

thought that national standards were an impossible things to get in education because everyone

around the country so valued the local school,

local district, and local control.

Now, one more big thing has fallen into place,

which is a few weeks after all these governors said they'd sign

on to national standards, the Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan, a few days ago announced

that the federal government would provide 350 million dollars to establish

tests to go with these standards and that means we're heading right toward

...