Where does McCrory stand on Common Core?
Published May 8, 2014
by Doug Clark, Greensboro News-Record, May 7, 2014.
Eric Guckian didn't want to leave me with the wrong impression.
So he called back.
Guckian is Gov. Pat McCrory's senior education adviser. He graciously called to answer a question I had about the governor's teacher pay initiative announced today.
I took the opportunity to ask about the governor's position on the Common Core State Standards in light of a legislative proposal to drop them.
This involves touchy politics. McCrory supports Common Core, but many legislators of his own party don't -- or they did once, but they don't anymore.
Speaker Thom Tillis has said during his Senate campaign that he wants to get rid of the national standards.
Guckian told me the governor supports high academic standards. He noted that many superintendents support Common Core and that school districts and teachers have put "a lot of money, time and effort" into preparing for them and translating the standards into curricula that help students. He said it would be ill-advised to move backward in North Carolina.
He made a very strong statement:
"I want to assure you that will not happen on Gov. McCrory's watch."
As the conversation ended, I thought Guckian meant the governor would not let the legislature abandon the Common Core State Standards.
The callback was to clarify.
High academic standards will not be compromised on this governor's watch, Guckian said.
Everyone agrees on 95 percent of the standards, he said. Changes to any part of the program will be made through a responsible process.
My take: Indiana became the first state to withdraw from Common Core, replacing those standards with its own that some observers thought looked very much like Common Core. What does it matter what the program is called if students have a rigorous, challenging curriculum that generally conforms to what students across the country learn?
Well, the feds might have a problem with Indiana. So that's something North Carolina should try to avoid.
I believe the governor is getting serious about improving education in our state. But he is not an education czar. He has to work with the legislature, some of whose members treat Common Core like a political hot potato.
If the legislature is hellbent on giving in to ill-founded objections to a set of national academic standards that would put our students on level footing with other American kids, then the governor has to find another way to accomplish the same purpose. That's what I heard Guckian say, the second time.
