Local parents welcome end of Common Core

Common Core Logo.
Photo Courtesy of Google.

It appears that local parents are not going to miss having their children learn under the Common Core, if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is successful at removing it from the state’s  public schools.

DeSantis, Florida's new governor, announced last month that one of his priorities for education is to completely do away with the Common Core. The Common Core is a fixed arrangement of standards for testing that teachers are required to follow when teaching students English and math in K-12.

Some of it has been diluted and partially removed but it still lingers in Florida's public schools. Many people say it forces teacher to teach students to pass tests versus teaching students to think critically.

Some parents believe that students are stressed out and can't properly learn the basics because teachers are teaching them to pass a standardized test.

Gloria Anderson believes that not all students learn on the same level. She says that students are having to follow through on guidelines that aren't made for them.

“We should go back to some of the basic learning standards for training children and challenging them, and not trying to give tests to hurt them,” said Anderson, the parent of a student at FAMU DRS.

She says that the system was not created promote students learning. She believes  students shouldn’t learn just to say that they made an A on a test.

DeSantis said he heard complaints like

DeSantis wants to replace the Common Core with higher standards but also include more civics education for students. These new standards won't include the standardized testing that is used today.

At a press conference in Cape Coral, DeSantis announced that he will issue an executive order to eliminate the Common Core. He plans to introduce a revamped curriculum.

“It will be geared towards knowledge more than maybe just teaching a test,” DeSantis said at the press conference.

Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have been using the Common Core. State like Texas and Nebraska never adopted the Common Core.

Florida adopted the Common Core in 2010, and in 2014 it was altered and the “Florida Standards,” was born.

Some parents didn’t like the Common Core because they felt as if it was difficult for no reason. They also felt like their children were learning to pass tests but not learning how to think for themselves.

Marlene Reid agrees with removing the Common Core, but she is unsure if this new proposal that DeSantis is bringing to the table will benefit students. The mother of a FAMU DRS student says that there is an agenda being pushed with changing the curriculum, and that someone will profit off creating new standards.

“There is so many politics involved, and the bottom line is a dollar. Someone's going to make some money off this. It is a dollar-making program on their agenda and we are going to pay,” said Reid.