There is no doubt that students in American schools should share a common goal: To be as well-educated as possible.

Kids from Maine to California, from Alaska to Florida, should all graduate with a similar understanding of math, science, English and other core fields of study.

Note two of the words that were just used: Common Core. It’s the title of an effort to set education standards to promote critical thinking and deeper learning among our students. This national program has been adopted by 45 states, including Wyoming, and the vast majority of educators have endorsed it. Here in the Powell school district, not a single educator has expressed opposition, according to Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Kevin Mitchell.

But as with seemingly everything today, Common Core has become politicized. Many conservatives, and several members of both the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement have increasingly argued against its implementation.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a potential 2016 candidate for president, said Common Core is being “used by the Obama administration to turn the Department of Education into what is effectively a national school board.”

Some gun rights supporters have seen a link between Common Core and gun control, a tie that frankly we can neither find nor understand.

Senate candidate Liz Cheney, who is running hard to the right in her effort to unseat Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., is also openly critical of Common Core. Enzi recently said he wants to see it “returned to the states,” although he offered no details.

Other opponents fear unnamed intrusions upon their freedom. Park County Republican Central Committee Chairman Larry French has warned of “hidden consequences” to Common Core State Standards.

The Wyoming Republican State Central Committee and the Park County Republican Central Committee have passed resolutions against Common Core.

“I feel we’re perfectly capable of educating our kids in Wyoming,” French said. “We don’t need government interference from Washington, D.C.”

While that makes for a dandy political slogan, the fact remains that there is already a great deal of the American educational process that is shared among the federal government and the states.

No one has called for the end of ACT testing for 11th-grade students. The SAT and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are still employed as well to gauge students’ abilities and knowledge. The U.S. Education Department is not acting like a national school board, nor is it mandating what textbooks are to be used.

“Some people call them Tea Party, others Libertarians,” he said. “I don’t know that they belong to any particular group — I’m just saying there’s a group of people who are really anti-federal government in a lot of ways. And why they attack this one little part, I still have not been able to figure out.”

State Sen. Hank Coe, a Cody Republican, is hardly a big government liberal. Coe said concerns that the Obama administration or any other government entity is seeking to impose its wishes on American students are unfounded.

“There’s no national curriculum here,” Coe said.

We concur with Coe about Common Core. As an in-depth report on the program that we published on reported Oct. 17 pointed out, Common Core states that students should be able to do math and use English, among other skills.

It does not tell schools how to arrive at that educational destination. It does not set a national curriculum, nor does it impose the wishes of President Obama or any other politician.

In fact, we wish politics were dropped from this discussion. Not everything is politics, folks. There used to be — and should be again — areas where all Americans can agree.

Let’s focus on improving education, and producing better-trained, more informed graduates who can thrive in the workplace and in life. That’s a common goal that should have core support from everyone.

We welcome a healthy, informed debate over this. A letter with a view greatly differing from this editorial appears at right. We encourage others to write to us and point out exactly what they fear and oppose.

Opponents concerned about Common Core will gather at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Room 70 of the Fagerberg Building at Northwest College. Such public forums are healthy signs of American democracy; we only hope that such discussions are fact-based.