Touching the "Third Rail"

Despite several failed attempts at national standards in the past, there was something different about the renewed efforts for national standards.  Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina pulled together a group of folks in Raleigh, NC, and the talks began.  Here were some obvious factors that made these "behind closed doors" talks of national standards take off with a renewed momentum:

1.  There was evidence that the state standards varied widely and that many states appeared to have set low expectations for students. NAEP provided some evidence to support this with the disparities among states' scores on the assessments designed by NAEP.

2.  There were large gaps in student performance.  This was particularly evident as the research showed statistically significantly different lower scores for racial and ethnic minorities who were ready for college based on studies from ACT.

3.  There was also a growing recognition that state boundaries were becoming irrelevant in light of an increasing global economy in which American students must learn to thrive.  PISA studies were placing American students far below those students from countries in which we traded with economically.
Governor Hunt talks about how serious he realized the problem had become when he looked at world-wide statistics and economics for our country in comparison to others.
Personally, I couldn't agree more with Governor Hunt's assessment of our plight in America, yet when I talk to other educators and members of the educational professional community, there seems to be a tendency to become defensive of what we have.  And if you add politics into the mixture, you have yourself a nice little explosion.  How do you all feel about the three statements listed above?