On Wednesday, April 29, the U.S. House of Representative's Education and Labor Committee held the 111th Congress's first hearing on the potential reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as the No Child Left Behind Act). Entitled "Strengthening America's Competitiveness through Common Academic Standards," the hearing could foreshadow a serious threat to the freedom of homeschoolers nationwide and America's constitutional tradition of limited government.

While not connected with any bill yet proposed in Congress, the U.S. representatives on the committee dedicated the hearing to the discussion of a plan to potentially eliminate virtually all state control over the education system, and centralize education in Washington, D.C. through nationalized standards, which would lead to nationalized curriculum tests, and textbooks.

The committee heard from various expert witnesses. Some, like Ken James, who is the commissioner of education for the Arkansas Department of Education, stressed that any plan should not be mandatory, or require the federal government to establish its own national standards: "First and foremost, this is a voluntary, state-led effort to establish a common core of standards across the states. Let me be clear, this is not an effort to establish federal standards," said Mr. James.

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