Scott Looks To Calm Nerves Over Common Core

January 12, 2014

Looking to calm a rising furor in the grass roots of his party, Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday that a state set of revisions to nationwide education standards will be unveiled next week.

One day after a caucus of the Republican Party of Florida’s state committeemen and committeewomen backed a resolution opposing the Common Core standards, Scott also said he would support legislation specifying that curriculum is a local responsibility and limiting what information can be gathered about students.

Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said earlier this week that her department would propose about 40 changes to the voluminous education benchmarks. Scott’s remarks Saturday, to the annual meeting of the state GOP, signaled that he hopes the changes will soothe conservative fears about the standards.

“Here’s what we’re going to ensure: These are Florida standards,” he said. “They’re not some national standards; they’re going to be Florida standards. This is our state. We’re not going to have the federal government telling us how to do our education system.”

The overwhelming majority of the changes Stewart is set to propose would add material to the state’s version of the standards, officials say.

Common Core started out as a joint project by officials in about four dozen states, but some conservatives have grown worried that the standards will instead lead to unprecedented federal intrusion in local schools. The opposition to the guidelines has opened a rift on the right between those arguing against the benchmarks and members of the school accountability movement, like former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, who backs the standards.

On Saturday, Scott spoke about legislative proposals only in vague terms. He did not stop to answer questions despite shouted requests from reporters who jogged toward him as he left the Rosen Centre Hotel.

But any measure spelling out the role of local school boards in curriculum might affect Common Core only at the margins, if at all. Supporters insist that the new standards only outline what students are expected to learn, while curriculum is still controlled at the local level.

The governor has tried before to get rid of concerns about Common Core, issuing an executive order in September that began distancing the state from a separate multi-state consortium building tests based on the standards. Scott also ordered the review of the benchmarks that led to Stewart’s proposed changes.

Rep. Debbie Mayfield, a Vero Beach Republican who has sponsored anti-Common Core legislation, said after Scott’s remarks Saturday that she was “perfectly happy with the direction the governor’s going in.” But she suggested that simply adding more material to the Common Core standards might not satisfy critics.

Mayfield has filed legislation (HB 25) intended to stop the standards from fully taking effect in Florida.

“If we have our own standards and if we have our own assessment, then what is the purpose of being in Common Core?” she asked Saturday.

Meanwhile, Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry told the party’s executive board Saturday that he would refer Friday’s Common Core resolution to the RPOF’s legislative affairs committee. The executive board is not expected to vote on the measure.

by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida

Comments

9 Responses to “Scott Looks To Calm Nerves Over Common Core”

  1. Susan on January 15th, 2014 1:13 pm

    Pearson is becoming like a giant Paman gobbling up everything in education.

  2. Elijah Bell on January 13th, 2014 5:29 pm

    Kathy J is spot on. Follow the $$. Now we have to try and figure out what the Gov and his pro charter, pro private lieut’s say to us.

  3. Kathy Jenkins on January 13th, 2014 4:23 pm

    Follow the money. This is all about funneling money to educational testing/software companies. Pearson Education Inc. owns Florida at all levels. Common Core means even MORE standardized computer testing at all grade levels. There are BIG BUCKS to be made here. That’s why Jeb is behind it.

  4. LEO GUY on January 13th, 2014 10:21 am

    @Susan,

    Were they parents with liberal arts college degrees? lol

  5. Kandice on January 12th, 2014 6:33 pm

    Yes we need a change vote him out fast. This is hard on children without disabilities now children with learning disabilities are mainstreamed the pressure on these children are extreme and the teachers I truly feel sorry for you all. I wish teachers could just teach cause sometimes I think my child with a learning disability might be ok if he wasn’t so confused.

  6. Mgirl on January 12th, 2014 4:14 pm

    Amen, Susan! My grandson was in the 4th grade a couple of years ago and I couldn’t believe the curriculum!! I was constantly saying to myself “just teach them to multiply! just teach them to divide!!” Why do they have to learn so many different ways to do it?????? I think it is such a waste of time and I think it is very confusing for them!

  7. Dr. Kevin R. Linam on January 12th, 2014 12:57 pm

    Common Core is a liberal-Marxist plan to control education philosophy-practices, like Obamacare it is a socialist plan to destroy America and turn our children into godless heathens! Fight it Florida!!!!

  8. Nicki on January 12th, 2014 9:11 am

    Since we have so few entering public school lets just make it worse on the students. Lets assure they don’t reach national standards, are securely unable to enter Universities in other States. Oh yeah we are Florida strong and stupid.

  9. Susan on January 12th, 2014 7:51 am

    I hope there will be some classroom teachers asked to help develop these changes! I am a 4 th grade teacher in Florida and the things we are expected to teach these children and the ways we must teach them is insane. I would like to see how many of the folks in Tallahassee know how to divide four different way and had to learn it all in one week! Please really sit down and look at what you are asking us to do. I have parents with college degrees calling me up and asking how to do 4th grade Math! Really people, let’s get back to teaching.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News