Irony in some Common Core Standards reporting

The Common Core Standards initiative came to my attention this morning in a newspaper editorial in the Kansas City Star.  The editorial writer is dismayed because Missouri has yet to join the initiative because of necessary bureaucratic procedures after the death of Missouri education commissioner Dr. Kent King.  The editorial seems to be meant to pressure Missouri governor Jay Nixon to join the initiative.

Intrigued (for other reasons), I searched for basic information about the initiative and easily found information.

• Common Core State Standards Initiative

At the site's main page, I found a link to a report that 49 states and territories have joined the initiative:

• Forty-Nine States and Territories Join Common Core State Standards Initiative

After I clicked back to the main search results list, what struck me as a numerical miracle, was how many states joined the existing 49.  The headlines give the impression that the existing 49, plus their own state, equals 50 states all in agreement.  Yaaaay!

• Southern Maryland Online:  Md. Joins 49 States in Common Core State Standards Initiative
• Iowa Dept. of Education:  Iowa Joins 49 States in Common Core Standards Initiative
• New Jersey Dept. of Education press release:  State Joins 49 Others in Common Core State Standards Initiative
• TN.gov Newsroom:  Tennessee Joins 49 States and Territories in Common Core Standards Initiative
• New Jersey Dept. of Education:  New Jersey Joins 49 States and Territories in Common Core State Standards Initiative
• Cox.net for Rhode Island:  Rhode Island Joins Common Core State Standards Initiative

Maybe those Depts. of Education should not wait for common standards, but start in-house remedial programs for the existing standards of reading for content.

Some sites got it right for the headline.

• Massachusetts Signs on to Common Core State Standards Initiative   Joins 48 Other States and Territories in Support of Shared ELA and Math Standards
• Wisconsin joins Common Core Standards initiative to transform education
• W.Va. Joins National Initiative to Develop New Standards
• State joins school initiative  (Kansas)
• Illinois Joins 48 States and Territories to Develop Common Learning Standards in Math and English
• Common standards could help local students  (Hawai'i)

< bemused thinking aloud >  The CCSSO is the organization sponsoring the MOA sent out to the states, and it is a 501.c.3 organization.  Its members are people who are simultaneously chief education officers of their respective states, and are also acting as ... organizers? ... of an initiative to bring more federal money to their state organizations.  I'm not politically astute enough to specify my uneasiness about the apparent circularity of (state) government employees banding together to gain more (federal) funding for their agencies because I know that they're supposed to advocate for their agencies, but something seems odd.  Perhaps its the influence on my thinking of the bar on military unions. ???