I see this as a positive.  The way standards are now with makes for a very inconsistent educational experience across the country.  Moreso, national standards allows the companys that create curriculum material for teachers to be more consistent.  Right now the manufacturers of curriculum often follow Texas' standards because it's such a large state.  This opens up curriculum to politics, because if Texas' school board decides to teach creationism and not mention evolution than that can skew the curriculum country wide to that view.  48 states are currently working together to agree on a standardized curriculum (with the exception of Texas and Alaska) so this should keep exterme cases of politics out.  In this era of No Child Left Behind there's also been the fear that states will lower their standards in order to meet funding criteria to the detriment of the students in the system.  A national set of standards will also avoid this effect.  Finally, if you move across state lines with a child, the transition should be much smoother with a national set of standards (unless of course you move to Texas).

Hi Marv,
This is an interesting question. The idea of nationwide standards appears to be a good one. However, there are some instances where a state with high standards already in place, such as Massachusetts, will likely already exceed the standards levels put in place at a national level. The question then is what that state will do. Will they lower standards to match national levels? It's an open question and one that will likely be resolved at some point in the process. An interesting fact is that these new national standards will likely be the "college- and career-ready" standards mentioned in the new blueprint for NCLB. It remains to be see what those actually are.

Hi again,
Here is a new article on the push for national standards, and what it means for parents. Hope this helps!