This is how controversial the new set of national academic standards called Common Core has become: The state Board of Education voted Thursday to make sure school districts know they don’t have to use a book list tied to those standards. The board’s voice vote was unanimous, even though the state had never adopted the book list in the first place.
Any reference to the book list is to be scrubbed from the Department of Education’s website.
Some Georgians, particularly tea party activists, argued that some books on the list are too sexually explicit for students and that the standards themselves are a federal intrusion into state control over public education.
The support of tea party activists, who tend to vote for Republicans, takes on fresh importance with GOP Gov. Nathan Deal facing two primary opponents as he seeks re-election next year.
Deal, who has supported Common Core, ordered the state Board to review the standards and to reconsider Georgia’s use of the book list.
State board members, appointed by the governor, have begun their review of the standards.
They voted Thursday to have the state Department of Education come up with and provide to school districts a “list of things to consider” as districts come up with their own lists of reading materials for use in schools.
More than a half-dozen opponents of Common Core came to Thursday’s meeting.
Those who spoke said the standards will harm, not help, public education in Georgia.
“Common Core will destroy college readiness in any meaningful sense,” said Mary Grabar, a freelance writer who said she has a doctoral degree in English.
Jane Robbins of Stone Mountain told board members embracing the standards means “Georgia is no longer in control of its standards in mathematics and English/language arts.”
Candice Serafin didn’t speak, but the Peachtree City stay-at-home mom handed a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a note spelling out her concerns with the standards.
“United States Dept. of Education has partnered with the Muslim Brotherhood,” the note read. “The USDOE is ushering in Islam in all the schools.”
Georgia is one of 46 states that have embraced the Common Core standards, which were first proposed by the National Governor’s Association.
Opposition to the standards has been growing even as many teachers say they like the emphasis on a prolonged focus on academic material instead of a push to cover more ground more quickly.
During a seminar on Common Core in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, former Michigan Gov. John Engler, responding to a question from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Republican-led opposition to the standards, said: “It’s all weird out there.”
Engler, a Republican who supports the standards, added: “It’s really important not to make this a political fight. It’s a fight about America’s future.”
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