SMITHVILLE, Tenn. – Common Core, the latest unproven education fad to sweep the nation, is proving to be an economic boom for textbook companies, test makers, technology companies and the tech-savvy folks who make computers do what they’re supposed to.

But for taxpayers and school district financial managers, the experimental learning standards are proving to be a major financial headache.

For example, WBIR.com reports Tennessee’s cash-strapped DeKalb County School District needs $320,000 to make its five schools “tech-ready” for the forthcoming PARCC tests – Tennessee’s Common Core-aligned standardized tests.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

Those tech needs include “Chromebook computers, updated software and bandwidth” just so students can take the online PARCC tests in early 2015, the news site reports.

Finding that money is a serious challenge for the district’s roughly 20,000 residents. Every dollar spent on Common Core preparation is one less district leaders have to spend on other needs, which include creating proper classrooms for students. WBIR.com reports that some students are studying in “classrooms” that have curtains for doors and lockers for walls.

Another rural Tennessee district – Humphreys County Schools – had to drain $150,000 from its savings account and delay addressing its bus needs just to get its classrooms ready for the PARCC, the news site adds.

“These rural district just take it on the chin,” said Republican state Rep. Billy Spivey.

The federal government – which is $17 trillion in debt – is offering financial assistance to help low-income schools get up to technological speed for Common Core. But that’s still not enough for many districts.

Keep in mind that getting schools tech-ready is just one of several new expenses Common Core is forcing upon districts. Districts have already spent small fortunes on new, Common Core-aligned textbooks and instructional materials, along with substantial sums of money on special training sessions for teachers.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

Since the new math and English standards “bleed” into virtually every other subject area, science and social studies teachers, for example, also have to learn how work the new English requirements into their lesson plans.

For all this expense, American taxpayers are getting an unproven set of learning standards that – in a best-case scenario – will instill a kind of uniform mediocrity among the nation’s K-12 students.

That’s some deal.

And in case you’re wondering, Bill Gates, Jeb Bush and the other purveyors of Common Core aren’t offering taxpayers a money-back guarantee when, years down the line, it’s obvious to all that this one-size-fits-all approach to education isn’t any better than the system it replaced.