Add U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to those opposing shared education standards fully adopted by Florida and 44 other states.
The standards, known as Common Core, have been under fire from those on the political right and left. Conservatives argue the federal government coerced states with money to adopt the standards, undermining local control of education. Those on the left protest increased testing.
Both right and left dispute whether the the standards are an improvement. (For more on that, check out the pro-Common Core Fordham Institute’s analysis of state standards.)
Rubio said Common Core has overstepped its original conception.
“Common Core started out as a well-intentioned effort to develop more rigorous curriculum standards,” Rubio told the Tampa Bay Times. “However, it is increasingly being used by the Obama Administration to turn the Department of Education into what is effectively a national school board. This effort to coerce states into adhering to national curriculum standards is not the best way to help our children attain the best education. Empowering parents, local communities and the individual states is the best approach.”
South Florida political blog The Shark Tank first broke the Rubio news.
Here’s what he told them:
I am very concerned, and quite frankly opposed to any effort to try to create some sort of national curriculum standard and then try to leverage the power of the federal government’s funding to force states to adopt a certain curriculum standard.
Rubio is the most influential Florida Republican to oppose the standards to date. Common Core is backed by Gov. Rick Scott, former Gov. Jeb Bush, House and Senate legislative leaders — Republican and Democrat — the Florida Education Association and business groups.
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