Homeschooling in the age of Common Core

My local school district is one of the many who have jumped on the Common Core band wagon in the hopes of securing money from the federal government.


There are people more sophisticated and experienced than me who are sounding the alarm. I agree that Common Core is a train wreck coming down the track which will cost money and do harm.


How will this effect me as a homeschool?

Before Common Core, I rarely looked at and never followed the state standards for what should be taught and when it should be taught.  I don't think that will change.  I ignored them before and I will continue to ignore them.

Since we use community college transcripts to get into college, I don't think the Common Core will have much effect on us either.  Community college doesn't use ACT or SAT scores.  [As a result of Common Core, the ACT and SAT tests are changing, mostly in the dumbing down direction. ] Community colleges use their own placement tests and I imagine they will continue to do so. Those tests might change under the influence of Common Core, but the material is so basic that I don't think they can do much harm on that level.


Common Core will influence the educational materials available to homeschoolers.  Since we don't use many of those kinds of resources, the impact on us should be minimal.  [However, I really hate the changes to Saxon Math that have already been made, so I imagine it will get worse under Common Core.]

I'm predicting that Common Core will fall out of favor very quickly.  Because of the legislation involved, it could take years, if not decades to undo the damage.

In the end, Common Core may inspire more parents to pull their children out of public school to homeschool.