Head Count: Executive Orders and State Republican Parties on Common Core
Pronouncements on the Common Core State Standards from state political figures are a hot Christmas item, apparently. Right after Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant issued an executive order on Dec. 16 affirming the state's power over curriculum under the common core, the South Carolina Republican Party took a less sympathetic view of the standards. Its executive committee approved a resolution officially opposing the standards because of stated fears about cost and a lack of oversight in how the standards were adopted.
The executive orders, ostensibly meant to calm fears about federal intrusion into schools and other aspects of the standards, don't mean that the governors are ordering the standards to be dropped. And former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a consistent supporter of the standards, has said the types of executive orders that rename the standards, for example, are the right idea (although it's not certain how he squares that view with his concurrent, stated opinion that the standards are "dead").
