TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – One of the biggest concerns about the national Common Core standards is that they will erode local control of America’s classrooms.

To help prevent that from occurring, Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would put individual school districts in charge of deciding which textbooks and instructional materials are used in their classrooms.

But leaders in a number of Florida’s smaller districts are opposing the legislative effort on the grounds that they simply don’t have the manpower or the money to research, rate and purchase their own teaching materials, according to Gainesville.com.

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Under the current system, state officials vet the teaching materials and negotiate pricing with textbook companies. Leaders of individual districts then purchase the books they want “through the Florida School Book Depository at a lower price than (they) would be to buy them outright from the publisher,” Gainesville.com reports.

Dixie District Schools Superintendent Mark Rains said the proposed changes won’t work for his school system, adding that his district is too understaffed to go through the lengthy process of choosing new textbooks.

“It’s a joke, to be honest with you, if (state lawmakers) think we’ve got the people to handle that in a proactive manner. That takes time and money that we don’t have,” Rains told the news site.

A school official with another Florida district told the news site that local control over the textbook selection process “would adversely affect us financially.”

Rains and other critics of the legislative effort have a point – district textbook costs will increase if they’re no longer able to buy the materials in mega-bulk quantity.

However, that might not be the insurmountable problem that critics fear. The large number of Floridians who are alarmed about Common Core may be willing to absorb some of those extra costs if the extra money will help preserve at least some measure of local control of their schools.

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Common Core critics can also be the answer for the manpower question.

We can’t recall a time when more parents and citizens have been so engaged in the education process. Districts should tap into this vein of public involvement to find volunteers who will help vet the textbooks. It’s true that most laypeople won’t be able to ascertain if a textbook aligns perfectly with the state’s new Common Core education standards; but they will be able to determine if the content is appropriate and free of (left-wing) political propaganda.

And that really gets to the heart of this entire local control issue.  Parents and community members are justifiably concerned that the political activists who produce much of the nation’s instructional material are going to use to chaos and confusion caused by Common Core overhaul to sneak offensive, biased, inappropriate and politically charged texts into the classroom.

Giving parents and taxpayers a say in the selection process will help guard against that.

And make no mistake, these are legitimate concerns. EAGnews has written extensively about how left-wing activist educators scheme to bring their pet political causes – man-made global warming, social justice, economic equality – into textbooks and teaching materials. These activists not only create the materials – they also give talks to educators explaining how to bring their political issues into their lessons.

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis recently gave a talk on how to bring “social justice” into math lessons. A video of that speech can be seen here.

One of the positive side effects of the Common Core experiment is more Americans are aware of this problem than ever before.

It remains to be seen if the local control of textbook legislation will become law in the Sunshine State. Gainesville.com reports the bill squeaked through the Senate, and still has to pass muster in the House of Representatives before it can be sent to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk for final approval.

NewHerald.com reports an alternative bill in the House would allow local school districts to “set up a process to choose their own textbooks if they want to. It would be optional. But if they do so, the textbooks still must meet state standards.”

Only a few weeks remain for lawmakers to reach a compromise. Florida’s current legislative session ends May 2.