On the surface, Common Core seems no better than the standards which Pennsylvania already had in place. If one looks deeper, it implies a back-door nationalization of education which financially incentivizes the states (vis a vis Race to the Top) to data mine kids through high stakes tests. That's not something we need. A child's most formative years are so much more. We cannot allow the federal government to experiment with our children. Moreover, the potential exists for historical revisionists through time, to consolidate power by manipulating what gets taught thereby subverting the entire educational process whereby children are no longer able to think for themselves, a concern voiced by the folks in their communities.
Traditionally, schools have always been locally controlled. They should be free to adopt their own standards as the states haven't proven particularly effective. Conversely, the Feds, don't do anything right, education least of all. In fact, federal law (20 USC 1232a) states, they have no business in our classrooms: "No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system..." Local municipalities not the feds are entrusted with the promise of making schools better. Common core was supposed to have helped. It hasn't. The Feds have run education off the tracks and well nigh ruined it with ought else they touch. I wish the rising tide of federal intervention and regulation would stop.