A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute puts a price tag on how much states may have to spend implementing national Common Core standards. Be prepared for some sticker shock.

The Fordham Institute, which supports the Common Core, estimates that it will take states one to three years to implement the national standards. The complete cost for putting just English and math standards in place could range from $3 billion to $12 billion, depending on the approach states take.

It’s worth considering that potential cost in light of recent findings that national standards won’t work, are likely more costly than we know, and are unconstitutional. Recent experiences in Florida and Washington don’t bode well. Neither do recent moves by some states that signed on to national standards and now want out. As my former colleague Lance Izumi explained recently in a Heartlander Magazine interview:

“These state leaders are finding out that the Common Core is the catalyst for nationalizing education through national testing and a national curriculum, all of which will disempower governors, legislatures, local school boards, the taxpaying public generally and parents specifically,” Izumi said. Federal grant money lured many states into the Core, but the lack of money to cover implementing the standards as well as the standards’ mediocre quality has some thinking twice, he said. “As more and more states realize the Faustian bargain they've made, look to see increasing movement by state lawmakers to fight Common Core and the Obama administration's nationalization agenda,” Izumi concluded.