Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he plans to sign an executive order that would abolish the Common Core education standards used in the state’s education system.
“I have heard parents from across the state loud and clear and they all agree that it is time to finally end Common Core,” said Governor DeSantis. “So today, we are taking action through this executive order to ensure that Florida has the best academic standards in the nation and eliminating Common Core from our schools, as well as reaffirming my commitment to prepare our students for the real world through an increased focus on civic education.”
Common Core is a set of uniform academic standards detailing what K-12 students should know in math and English language arts.
“We put too much testing in and put too much weight on the testing, but I think we have to use it as a tool so students can compare their performance to others and teachers can be knowledgeable,” said Marsha Daniels, a retired school teacher.
“The standards are really what we want kids to be able to do at the end of the day after we deliver the lessons,” said Rob Kriete, President of the Hillsborough County Teacher’s Association.
“We’ve only had these new standards for eight years, so it’s really hard to judge how well or maybe, how not well they’ve been working so far. But we’re willing to sit at the table and talk to the communities and see what they want.”
The Florida Department of Education made a handful of changes to the standards in 2014 and renamed them the Florida Standards.
DeSantis said he will seek ideas from teachers and parents in order to implement new standards. He’s asked Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran to spend a year crafting new state curriculum standards to present to the Legislature for the 2020 session.
