CONCORD, N.H. – A bill intro­duced to the New Hamp­shire Sen­ate would pro­hib­it the state from requir­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of Com­mon Core edu­ca­tion stan­dards, a pow­er­ful first step towards a nul­li­fi­ca­tion of fed­er­al con­trol over education.

Intro­duced by State Sen. Kevin Avard (R‑Nashua), Sen­ate Bill (SB101) suc­cinct­ly states that Com­mon Core “shall not be required by the depart­ment of edu­ca­tion or the state board of edu­ca­tion to be imple­ment­ed in any school or school dis­trict in this state.”

While pas­sage wouldn’t be an out­right ban on Com­mon Core in the state, such a law would move the final deci­sion about the stan­dards to local com­mu­ni­ties where many advo­cates of edu­ca­tion free­dom believe they should be made.

SB101 has been referred to the Sen­ate Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee where it needs to pass by major­i­ty vote.

While tout­ed as a state ini­tia­tive, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is deeply involved in both the for­mu­la­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of Com­mon Core, pri­mar­i­ly through stim­u­lus fund­ing. The end result is that when you fol­low the mon­ey, it becomes clear that Com­mon Core is a nation­al pro­gram.

Con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment should not be involved in edu­ca­tion at all.