Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) has chastised the Department of Education for circumventing funding rules to bolster the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) education assessments that test Common Core state standards in math and English language arts.
Hultgren recently sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, urging it to withhold funding if the Department of Education engages in actions to influence decisions by states that contravene academic standards.
“What originally began as a state-led initiative in academic standards has been taken over by a federal government bent on exerting its control over the education decisions made by parents, teachers and local school districts over how and what they will teach their students,” Hultgren said. "And while state after state has pulled out of the questionable PARCC assessments that test the Common Core, the Department of Education has somehow found the funding to prop up its increasingly unpopular nationalized education agenda."
Hultgren has been at the forefront of raising questions concerning Common Core implementation in Illinois. In 2013, he spearheaded a fact-finding mission to determine whether or not Common Core is the proper course for the state.
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