0 Fair-weather federalism

One thing that bothers me is how quickly people move from “I like Policy X” to “The federal government should impose Policy X on the whole nation.” Whether you like the Common Core standards themselves is a very different question from whether you think the federal or state governments should impose them on all school districts. In a year or two, a very different set of people might be in charge of the federal and state governments. They might propose a set of standards that you don’t like at all. If that happens, would a Common Core supporter suddenly become an advocate of local control? Shouldn’t one’s opinion about centralized policy-making be based on principle, rather than on who happens to be in power at any given moment?
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