Midterm elections might be in the rear view mirror, but the statewide fight against Common Core State Standards hasnt let up. Those who oppose them hope Gov. Rick Scott now will pay closer attention to the problems Common Core presents.
With another promised four years of Scotts administration and a Republican-controlled Legislature, anti-Common Core groups are not backing down on their opposition to national standards, which were fully implemented in Florida this year.
For opponents of the standards, the Florida Legislature seems to be the primary spot for initiating real changes to the standards.
We certainly plan to put forward legislation because there are a lot of parents, teachers and a lot of school board members who are very, very concerned about various aspects of the Common Core issue, said Dr. Karen Effrem, president of Florida Stop Common Core Coalition. We hope to continue our nonpartisan work and get something going that deals with those concerns from lots of different viewpoints.
But whether members of the House and Senate will be responsive to anti-Common Core legislation is less than clear.
During the last session, Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, sponsored a bill thatwould have paused the implementation of the standards until several public hearings took place.
Yet, despite gaining traction with anti-Common Core groups across the state, Mayfields legislation didnt make it too far in the Legislature -- it ended up dying in the Education Appropriations Committee in early May.
Effrem says theres a lot of uncertainty on whether this year will have better results than the last.
I hope that the Legislature will be responsive, but I dont know, she told Sunshine State News. They may see it as not as important to them as other things they want to do in education.
That hasnt stopped anti-Common Core groups from reaching out to state legislators to get a head start on crafting bills to fight back against the standards.
We are definitely working with specific legislators in order to develop our legislative agenda for this year, said Chris Quackenbush of Stop Common Core FL.
"In order to knock this out we are going to have to take it out bite by bite," Laura Zorc of Florida Parents Against Common Core wrote in an email to Sunshine State News. "We know other groups outside [Anti-Common Core] do not like the assessments. Teachers are not bold enough to speak out against the standards..yet... and the legislature will not support a complete repel...yet...Give it another full year and they will see what we have warned them about."
Another way opponents to Common Core are making their voices heard is through state school boards, some of which have already come out against high-stakes standardized testing and one which is wanting to opt out of the standards entirely.
Neither Quackenbush nor Effrem said they would give up on getting Gov. Scott to push back against the standards.
I think the governor would be very wise to address the problems that are obvious in our education system. I can only hope he will listen to reason and to all [of his] constituents
We hope that he will follow through on his public and private commitments to deal with the issue, said Effrem.
