Mercedes Schneider here reviews half of the Great Debate about Common Core sponsored by Intelligence Squared and titled “Embrace the Common Core.” The half that she reviews is the side that favored Common Core: Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Carmel Martin, former Obama administration official, now at the Center for American Progress.

Schneider spent the summer writing a book about the history of the Common Core, so she is well informed.

I thought I could summarize her critique, but I can’t. If you are interested in the subject of the Common Core, this is a must read. Suffice it to say that Schneider, a high school English teacher in Louisiana with a doctorate in research methodology, skewers the arguments advocating for Common Core. She does it in her typical style: with keen intelligence and withering wit.