As the debate around the Common Core State Standards continues, many media outlets have latched onto a video featuring Florida Rep. Charles Van Zant claiming that the federal standards will turn kids gay.  

In the video, shot at the Operation Education Conference in March, Van Zant directs his claims at Florida's test development contract with the American Institutes for Research. Arguing that AIR is "promoting as hard as they can, any youth that is interested in the LGBT agenda," and that the organization "will attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can," the state lawmaker's diatribe is the latest in a long list of extreme, off-topic arguments against the Common Core.  

A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization, recently released Public Schools in the Crosshairs: Far-Right Propaganda and the Common Core State Standards, where it asserts that rants like Van Zant's are part of a bigger agenda by the far right to dismantle the United State's public school system. Ultimately, the SPLC contends misinformation and propaganda have obscured meaningful discourse amongst the public. 

We've rounded up some of the top legitimate concerns surrounding the Common Core, as well as some of the more ridiculous arguments out there.

First, the valid concerns: 

1. The standards are disproportionately funded by the Gates Foundation

As of November 2013, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had spent over $170 million on the creation and implementation of the Common Core. This hefty sum has some critics worried about the implications of a private organization using money to sway public policy.  Their backing of the Common Core has also contributed to claims by some that the United States is now more of an oligarchy than a democracy.

2. The limited implementation timeline is unrealistic

While the Common Core was introduced in 2009 by the National Governors Association, and adopted by many states in 2010, the implementation and test turnaround has been relatively short. This race to get the standards into schools has left many states and districts feeling unprepared and out of the loop in terms of what is expected of them.  

3. The standards perpetuate a high-stakes testing culture 

While many agree No Child Left Behind was something of a failure — just look at the number of states asking for waivers — the Common Core's dependence on standardized tests seems to perpetuate the high-stakes testing culture promoted by the Bush-era legislation.  

4. They were unfairly pushed upon states as a condition of additional grants

Despite being advertised as optional, the Obama administration tied the Common Core standards to its Race to the Top competition, making adoption a condition for eligibility. With millions on the line, many lawmakers jumped to adopt the standards without much thought about what they entailed or how they would affect education in their states.  

5. Their quality is currently untested

Given the aforementioned short timeline for implementing the standards opponents, like New York University education historian Diane Ravitch, are concerned that the actual quality of the standards are not up to par. In a recent blog post, Ravitch said her issues were with the "quality of the standards, whether they are appropriate for students of different age groups, and how they are likely to narrow or increase these gaps among different student groups." This unknown is compounded by the creation of the standards behind closed doors.

All of these valid arguments, however, have had a tendency to be drowned out by those on the fringe, many of which aren't quite grounded in reality (and are also easier to package in attention-grabbing sound bites). Here are a few of the more pervasive claims.

1. Common Core standards promote a gay agenda  

Phyllis Schlafly — founder of the conservative, "pro-family" Eagle Forum, based out of Illinois and D.C. — claims that the Common Core is an "active promotion of gay marriage, and other federal efforts designed to dismantle society." Schalfly wrote this in a letter to Catholic Bishops that was then re-printed in Crisis, a catholic magazine.  

2. They're part of an attempt to mine student data

3. They are part of a socialist indoctrination effort