What could have erupted into a fight among Republicans Tuesday didn’t, when the state Senate passed a law to review — but not immediately pull Georgia away from — the controversial set of national academic standards known as Common Core.
By a vote of 34-16, the Senate passed legislation sponsored by Sen. William Ligon, R-Brunswick, to have an advisory panel review the standards, which have drawn political opposition from tea party activists as a federal intrusion into state control of public education.
Abruptly leaving Common Core could have huge financial costs in Georgia; the state won a $400 million federal education grant in part because it had agreed to adhere to the standards.
But the federal government’s nudging of states to adopt the standards has generated intense pushback from those who have come to see them as education’s version of President Obama’s health care law.
Ligon has led the legislative fight against the standards in Georgia. Business and higher education officials have largely supported the standards, arguing that they allow students to get a deeper understanding of academic material and harmonize when students across the country are introduced to that material.
The Common Core fight had put Gov. Nathan Deal, who has supported the standards, in a tight political spot. Both tea party activists and business interests are important constituencies for the governor, who faces a pair of GOP challengers as he seeks re-election this year.
Tuesday’s vote — and the prospect that similar legislation will pass in the House of Representatives — means Deal might not have to disappoint tea party activists or business interests before facing voters. And it means one faction of pro-Common Core Republicans won’t be doing battle with another faction of Common Core opponents.
The move is the most recent step away from Common Core in Georgia and across the country. Teachers in New York, who had previously supported the standards, recently announced their opposition to them. The National Association of Educators, the nation’s largest teachers union, has also ripped the rollout of the standards.
On Monday, Deal lamented the political focus on Common Core.
“It’s unfortunate that that has diverted so much time and attention when I think we could have spent our efforts and resources perhaps more focused on advancing education,” he said.
State Sen. Fran Millar, a Dunwoody Republican who supports Common Core, voted for Ligon's Senate Bill 167, arguing that its review largely mirrors the one Deal ordered last year. The state Board of Education has begun conducting that review.
Millar said he would not have voted for S.B. 167 if it called for Georgia to immediately leave Common Core. But the review seemed reasonable, he said.
“One of the things about politics is, it is about consensus,” Millar said.
For Ligon, passage of S.B. 167 means he can say he has moved to slow down the Common Core train and possibly throw it off the tracks down the line.
“It gives us the opportunity to move out of Common Core,” he said of the legislation.
Georgia agreed to adhere to Common Core standards in 2010, not long after moving to the Georgia Performance Standards. Some teachers have expressed frustration at having to teach to standards that never seem to stay in place for long.
Ligon’s bill was amended to allow teachers to serve on an advisory panel that would review the standards and make recommendations to the state Board of Education. That board’s members are appointed by the governor and have the final say on what standards are used in Georgia.
Tracey-Ann Nelson, director of government relations for the Georgia Association of Educators, said her group’s “biggest fear would have been that the standards would have been ripped out from under them.”
State Sen. Jason Carter, the Decatur Democrat running for governor, said S.B. 167's passage just highlights how politics intrudes on education in Georgia.
“This just demonstrates that there is a lack of leadership and the lack of a coherent vision,” he said.
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