COMMENTARY

PAT LAVINS

Governor Rick Scott is engaged in election year gamesmanship.  First, he claims to support halting the development of a new statewide test tied to Common Core education standards. Then he states that he wants to let schools continue to implement the educational benchmarks that have been successfully implemented in most states without controversy.

Conservative GOP leaders are attempting to brew a political crisis when none exists because school districts across the nation have been gradually implementing the new standards into classrooms since 2010. In Florida, Broward County is in its third year of integrating Common Core standards with no negative impacts.

Anti-Common Core zealots are pressuring legislators like Debbie Mayfield to introduce legislation that would repeal Common Core standards.  Thus, putting the children of Florida at a distinct disadvantage with their peers in other states.  Sadly, Florida has consistently been in the bottom tier on all state-by-state evaluations of educational achievements for many years.  In Florida there is also a problem with graduation rates and reading at grade level.  It is this reality that was the impetus for the Indian River School District’s initiative of “Moon shot Moment” which will focus attention of the whole community on addressing the importance of reading literacy for our students.

Common Core is not the only means to creating a more educated population.  It is but one tool in a large arsenal.  The development of Common Core Standards continues to demand the constant attention of School Boards, Administrators and parents with a goal of improved student performance through more strident student engagement.  It is a process that will be modified by input from concerned citizens over time.

The purpose of Common Core is to help students develop the ability to think critically, learn effective problem solving, develop collaborative skills and have set learning goals by grade levels.  This foundation will be mandatory if the United States is able to be competitive in the global market.

Common Core was created in response to national taxpayers demand for more accountability.  There continues to be concerns about testing, funding and technology that need to be addressed without the lens of political anti-government bias.  Open minds will hopefully continue the success with the implementation of Common Core which has already been achieved in most states.  Another potential benefit will be a lessening of the current fixation on testing and its correlation to teacher evaluations.  Common sense dictates that we are not able to hold accountable any teacher, no matter how skilled, with addressing the negative effects of poverty, lack of parental involvement and other barriers to academic success such as absenteeism.

The critics of Common Core claim to fear non-existent intrusion by the Federal government.  Part of this momentum is politically based in advance of the 2014 and 2016 elections.  However, we should not hold our children back from scholastic achievement just to score some political points. The stakes are higher than any political party’s goals and objectives.