House K-12 Subcommittee Chairwoman Janet Adkins proposed deleting Common Core from Florida Statutes so all the state’s education standards will be under one name. File photo by John Iarussi
By James Call| Originally Published at The Current. January 31, 2014
It’s not as Orwellian as making a person’s existence disappear from the public record but Winston Smithwould recognize the maneuver.
A Florida House committee on Wednesday will discuss a proposed committee bill that expunges the words “Common Core” from state law. The K-12 Subcommittee is working on a bill, basically a housekeeping measure, repealing terminated programs and clarifying graduation requirements. It would delete 36 references to the Common Core State Standards in sections 1000.21 to 1008.22 of the Florida Statutes governing public education.
The proposal replaces Common Core with “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.” The measure also removes references to Common Core in the definition of the Next Generation standards. Florida adopted Common Core academic standards in 2010 and was to implement them this fall.
“Name changes and cosmetic changes to standards will not pull Florida out of Common Core,” said Karen Effrem, of the Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. “We’re still going to be in the Common Core system.”
The FSCCC is among a handful of groups opposed to Common Core. Their efforts led Gov. Rick Scott to order the Department of Education to hold public hearings on academic standards last fall, to end Florida’s leading role in developing a test measuring student’s performance to the new standards, and for Education