Our newly elected governor here in Florida, Ron DeSantis, has wasted no time in office. And his most recent move was an executive order to eliminate Common Core standards in Florida schools. Although the state originally adopted the Common Core standards, they were later altered and renamed and DeSantis wants a more permanent solution. So do parents. (Currently, only 41 states still use the system.)
“Supporters argue the Common Core creates clear college and career-ready standards for students, whereas opponents argue it encourages educators to ‘teach to the test,’ discriminates against children in lower socio-economic parts of the country and complicates learning because it doesn’t feel like it was developed by teachers who understand what day-to-day life is like in the classroom.”1
While on the campaign trail, Governor DeSantis said he “consistently” heard from parents who had serious issues with certain aspects of Common Core; some parents didn’t feel it was flexible enough and others felt like some teachers were more concerned about test scores than the kids actually learning.
But what everyone seemed to agree on was the governor’s idea about “getting more civics lessons back in the classroom — teaching kids about the constitution and the principles that our nation was founded on.”1 And according to DeSantis, that means civics that stay away from “today’s political partisanship.”1
The governor has instructed the state’s education commissioner Richard Corcoran to come up with better standards which would replace the current ones. He’s also been instructed to “listen to teachers and parents as he develops the new concepts.”1 (Although Rick Scott did the same thing when he took office, ultimately his administration only recommended a handful of changes including teaching cursive and calculus.)
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