re: #158 ralphieboy

we need an education system in which parents can move from state to state to pursue job opportunities without worrying about it adversely affecting their children’s academic potential

Or from one side of town to the other, or even within the same state. The variability of school quality is that granular.

State curricula are not always strictly enforced. Local conditions (property tax values, family income levels, etc.) may make it close to impossible to meet all curricular demands. In addition, there have been several well publicized examples of science teachers paying only lip service to state guidelines and teaching creationism or ID in their classes, and local administrators letting them get away with it. The saga of John Freshwater in Ohio is one notable example. He was going so far as to proselytize his 7th graders in class.

That said, a national curriculum is just ink on paper if there is not enough money, equitably distributed, to enable all the schools to meet the guidelines. Imagine the hue and cry if someone proposed not only a American national curriculum, but also a national education tax, to replace or augment local property taxes.