The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Initiative was initially met with great enthusiasm from politicians and education experts. However, as states began rolling out the standards, backlash against the Common Core became widespread, and several states ended up pulling out of the initiative. To explore and better understand why there was such a negative reaction to the Common Core, we make use of the sociology construct of moral panics, and present an argument that the response to the CCSS was indeed a moral panic. [For the complete proceedings, see ED606531.]