PATRICK MURRAY: "Any school that receives federal or state money is going to be required to use the common core standards."

He says many states have adopted the common core standards only because they were offered federal money.

PATRICK MURRAY: "My opinion is when you have federal mandates and federal money involved, it’s no longer state-led."

Mr. Murray says national academic standards would violate the United States Constitution. He believes the federal government should have no role in education -- none.

Patience Blythe disagrees. Ms. Blythe has taught for five years. She recently moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Before that she was a science teacher in Texas -- one of the few states not to adopt the common core standards.

Ms. Blythe says national standards could improve the results of American students on international science tests.

PATIENCE BLYTHE: "Not everything has to be a state issue. There could be a benefit from some more federal involvement in our education system, that we could address a lot of the inequalities that we have."

She also disagrees with those who say the standards could limit the ability of teachers to be creative.

PATIENCE BLYTHE: "The reality is the standards give you keys and tools to understand what the objectives are, and understand what the questions on whatever state assessment you’re going to take are going to cover. I can be as creative as I want to, especially if I have a good team of teachers to work with, and that we can work together and bounce ideas off each other."