Common Core School Standards Face a New Wave of Opposition
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| Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma has not decided whether to sign a bill that would withdraw her state from the Common Core standards. Similar legislation is on governors’ desks in Missouri and South Carolina. Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press |
Opposition to the Common Core, a set of reading and math standards for elementary, middle and high school students that were originally adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia, has gathered momentum among state lawmakers in recent weeks.
The governors of Oklahoma and South Carolina are considering signing bills to repeal the standards and replace them with locally written versions. In Missouri, lawmakers passed a bill that would require a committee of state educators to come up with new standards within the next two years.
Although the Common Core, developed by a coalition convened by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, was initially backed by a group of Republican governors, the Obama administration also lent its support. For the past year, conservative Republicans, seizing on the administration’s backing, have argued that the standards amount to a federal takeover of public schools.
Jason Nelson, a Republican state representative from northwest Oklahoma who sponsored the bill to withdraw the state from the Common Core, said he and his colleagues wanted to “break any kind of nexus where any private organization or the federal government would exert control over our standards.” The bill passed the Oklahoma House overwhelmingly last week, and this week it passed the Senate, 31 to 10.
The pushback from the right has been fueled by an unlikely alliance with critics on the left, who are upset by new standardized tests and the high stakes associated with them, including teacher performance reviews.
But teachers unions say that those who are calling for a full rejection of the Common Core are exploiting the broader discontent about the rollout of the standards and new tests.
“The Tea Party is using the frustration with the implementation as the guise to eliminate standards in schools and to destabilize public education,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union. Its executive council recently passed a resolution supporting “the promise and potential of the Common Core State Standards.”
In Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, is meeting with educators and parents before deciding whether to sign the bill. “She has been a supporter of high standards in education and has said that Common Core is one pathway to achieving high standards,” said Alex Weintz, a spokesman for the Common Core School Standards Face a New Wave of Opposition - NYTimes.com: