The press release from the Pioneer
Institute on cost estimates of national education standards:
STUDY
ESTIMATES COST OF TRANSITION TO NATIONAL EDUCATION
STANDARDS AT $16 BILLION
Cost
far exceeds sums doled out in federal grants used
to persuade states to adopt.
BOSTON/WASHINGTON,
D.C./SAN FRANCISCO – Aligning state and local
educational systems to the Common Core State
Standards in English language arts and math will
cost the 45 states plus the District of Columbia
that have adopted them nearly $16 billion over
seven years according to a new study published by
Pioneer Institute, the American Principles
Project, and the Pacific Research Institute of
California. This does not include additional
spending for reforms to help students meet the new
standards.
“Very
few of the states that adopted Common Core vetted
the costs and benefits beforehand,” said Theodor
Rebarber, lead contributor to the analysis, National
Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the
Common Core Standards. “While test-development
costs will be covered by federal grants, these
states are also likely to see their overall
expenditures increase significantly.”;
The
study, which only calculates expenses directly
associated with the transition, finds that states
are likely to incur $10.5 billion in one-time
costs. These include the price of familiarizing
educators with the new standards, obtaining
textbooks and instructional materials aligned with
the standards, and necessary technology
infrastructure upgrades.
An
estimated $503 million will be incurred in
first-year operational costs like technology
training and support and higher assessment costs
for some states.
AccountabilityWorks
(AW), which developed the analysis, estimates that
an additional $801 million will be incurred
annually in years two through seven for ongoing
support of the enhanced technology infrastructure
and the introduction of new assessments that are
currently under development.
“The
nearly $16 billion in additional costs is nearly
four times the federal government’s Race to the
Top grant awards,” said Pioneer Institute
Executive Director Jim Stergios. “With state and
local taxpayers footing 90 percent of the bill for
K-12 public education, the federal government’s
push to get states to adopt national standards and
tests amounts to one big unfunded mandate.”;
The
study uses California, whose current academic
standards are among
the nation’s best but has adopted Common Core,
as an example. AccountabilityWorks estimates the
Golden State will incur additional costs of over
$1 billion for technology and support, $606
million for professional development and $374
million for textbooks and materials over seven
years. The additional costs would exacerbate
California’s recent budget woes, which have been
even worse than what most other states have
endured.
“In
coercing states to adopt the Common Core State
Standards program, the US DOE and various private
trade groups have denied the American people and
their elected state legislators any meaningful
chance to study either its academic quality or
cost implications,” said Emmett McGroarty of the
American Principles Project. “;Sadly, now state
and local taxpayers will have to pay for Common
Core’s distortion of the democratic process.”;
The
study includes several recommendations. The first
is that the 45 states and the District of Columbia
that have adopted Common Core and joined one of
the two federally-sponsored testing consortia
should engage in a public discussion about the
costs and benefits of adoption and whether it
represents the best investment of scarce education
resources.
“The
cruel irony is that in their chase for elusive
federal grant dollars states have largely ignored
the cost of implementing the national education
standards that the US DOE and DC special interests
are foisting on them,” said Lance Izumi, Koret
Senior Fellow in Education Studies at the Pacific
Research Institute. “Especially in deficit-plagued
states like California, it was simply fiscal
madness to agree to the national-standards regime
and its massive future costs.”
AccountabilityWorks
also recommends that states conduct a technology
feasibility assessment to determine their
readiness to implement the standards, ensure that
thorough professional development is available to
all teachers so students have an adequate
opportunity to learn the material they will be
tested on, identify the resources needed to fully
align instructional resources and materials with
Common Core, and analyze the future annual costs
associated with national standards-based
assessments that are currently under
development.
AccountabilityWorks
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the dual
goals of research that supports sound educational
policy as well as supporting states and schools in
implementing high quality assessment and
accountability systems. Among its initiatives, AW
has conducted cost studies on the implementation
of federal education initiatives, developed paper
and online assessments, and conducted research on
state standards. Theodor Rebarber is chief
executive officer of AW. Previously he was chief
education officer of a system of charter schools,
served as staff in Congress and at the U.S.
Department of Education, and researched state
education reform at the Vanderbilt Institute of
Public Policy Studies. Rebarber has testified to
Congress on state costs of implementing federal
education initiatives.
Pioneer
Institute led a campaign in 2010 to oppose the
adoption of national standards, producing a
four-part series reviewing evolving drafts. The
reports compared them with existing Massachusetts
and California standards, and found that the
federal versions contained weaker content in both
ELA and math. The reports, listed below, were
authored by curriculum experts R. James Milgram,
emeritus professor of mathematics at Stanford
University; Sandra Stotsky, former Massachusetts
Board of Education member and University of
Arkansas Professor; and Ze’ev Wurman, a Silicon
Valley executive who helped develop California’s
education standards and assessments.
In
addition, along with the Federalist Society, the
American Principles Project, and the Pacific
Research Institute, Pioneer recently released a
research paper co-authored by former general
counsel and former deputy general counsel of the
United States Department of Education, Robert S.
Eitel and Kent D. Talbert, on the legal concerns
about national standards and assessments.