Federally approved state sovereignty?

Can one be alone together?

Can one offer an unbiased opinion?

Can one keep an open secret?

Can a state have federally-approved, sovereign academic standards?

An oxymoron is a figure of speech which contains words that seem contradictory to one another intended to create humor or  to make the reader stop and think.  In the case of Indiana and the Common Core Standards debate, the use of an oxymoron to describe our academic standards should definitely make people stop and think, but instead of humor it should invoke horror.

The question legislators and Governor Pence should be asking is: How can we have sovereign standards if they must be approved by the federal government?

Consider the Common Core Standards ultimate goal of “college and career readiness.” I smell another oxymoron here. It’s like saying a little bit pregnant. Either children are college ready or they are career ready, it’s one or the other.

If Indiana is going to define standards with such double-speak, they can include me out.