Will Weatherford and Don Gaetz Show Support for Rick Scott's Executive Order on Education

House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz both weighed in on Monday on Gov. Rick Scott's executive orderto remove Florida from thePartnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test.

Weatherford and Gaetz issued the following statements regarding the executive order signed by Gov. Rick Scott on Floridas education standards:

I applaud Governor Scott for taking decisive and bold action to affirm Floridas constitutional role in education," said Weatherford. For the past 15 years, Florida has been on a purposeful road to improve our schools through higher standards, greater accountability and higher pay for our best teachers. These efforts are paying off and our students are achieving better results.In the Common Core debate, Governor Scotts actions today strike the perfect balance between states' rights and states' responsibilities. While I support our current standards, I think it is appropriate to undertake a transparent and thorough review with public input. We will not retreat one inch from our ambitious pursuit of the highest quality education system in the nation.

Today our governor affirmed Florida will maintain our states constitutional primacy in establishing education policy, particularly with regard to control over standards, curriculum, instructional materials and student assessments," said Gaetz. "Florida has risen steadily and dramatically in national education rankings not because of some policy dictated from Washington, but because the people of Florida have made education accountability and academic achievement a moral imperative.

As I wrote earlier this summer in a joint letter with Speaker Weatherford, I fully support severing ties with PARCC. We need to develop a Florida plan for student assessments that will ensure Florida does not back up one inch from the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards adopted by the state Board of Education in 2010. Over the last 15 years, high standards have been the North Star, guiding improvements within our education system. We must continue to be faithful to our mission of rigorous standards, better schools and rising student achievement.

The people of Florida chose to include state primacy of education policy in our state Constitution and the governors executive order is a strong and helpful confirmation to parents, teachers, taxpayers, and most importantly puts the federal government on notice that Florida will fulfill our obligation and exert our constitutional authority."