Backlash over Common Core State Standards

The only states not to adopt the standards are Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia. Minnesota adopted the reading but not the math standards.

What’s happening in the states:

• In Kansas, the idea of putting the brakes on Common Core failed earlier in the session in the House Education Committee. However, grassroots pressure has been put on the state board and legislators to stop implementation over concerns that it will weaken Kansas education and that the standards equate to additional federal intrusion into what opponents say is a local issue of setting curriculum.
• In Missouri, a bill that would have required the state education department to estimate the cost of implementing the standards and to hold statewide hearings about them failed. The legislative session has wrapped up.
• In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder said in May that he supports the state’s participation in the standards. But the state’s House and Senate have approved budgets prohibiting spending on the standards.
• In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal signed an executive order in May putting in place restrictions on the standards. Under the order, the state will be prohibited from collecting certain information on students and their families, including religious and political affiliation and voting history. Deal, a Republican, acknowledged in his remarks that the personal information is not currently being collected, but said his order was designed to ensure no one’s rights are violated.
• In Indiana, lawmakers put the brakes on the new standards in April, voting to delay their full rollout to allow time to study the potential costs of implementing or abandoning them and hold public meetings.
• In Pennsylvania, controversy has surrounded an effort to create a set of standards that melds parts of the state’s 14-year-old standards with the Common Core standards. Gov. Tom Corbett asked state education officials in May to clarify that those combined standards are not uniform national standards. However, Corbett’s request apparently would not alter the substance of the proposed standards, or the part of the proposal that ties them to tests that students must pass in order to graduate.

In Alabama, some Republicans tried without success to repeal the standards The standards have been opposed by the governor and supported by state Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice and a statewide business organization.

In South Carolina, an effort by some Republicans to block implementation died in the Senate last year. Republicans in the House took a different tack this year aimed at future Common Core standards, sponsoring a bill requiring that any new standards also be approved by the Legislature. It’s up for debate on the House floor.

In Utah, some in the state are resisting the Common Core, including the state’s Republican Party, which approved a resolution in May opposing the standards.