Unintended Consequences of America’s Rush Toward STEM Education
By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. | March 22, 2016 National Center for Policy Analysis
America is obsessed with the notion that education must shift away from the liberal arts and toward the teaching of specific technical skills if we are to survive in the 21st century, which is defined by technology and ordered by global competition.



Recently the U.S. Congress, aided by the GOP, replaced the despised No Child Left Behind law with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Rather than reducing federal control, the legislation embeds Common Core and intertwines federal tentacles even further.
A January 12th press released by the
The truth about Race to the Top, Common Core, and ESSA are lost in the daily minutia fed to the American public. This discussion is about learning who is profiting from – and controlling -- American public education. 
As the public demand for school choice shifts into high gear, so does the focus shift from school choice to school quality. Those same school choice backers who are fleeing government schools because of heavy regulations now do not trust the free market approach to bring quality. Already they are calling for a rather heavy measure of regulations to ensure quality.
In the face of growing outrage over the Republican support of Obama’s radical agenda to nationalize and dumb down education, lawmakers are scurrying to convince voters the