Just as all the drama around the Common Core State Standards was starting to seem pass茅, there鈥檚 the potential for it to raise its head again in a closely watched political contest.
About a month ago, Republican gubernatorial norminee Ron DeSantis resurfaced the issue in a Tweet calling for the end of the standards in Florida. And his states crisply: Stop Common Core.
We can improve our education system in Florida by stopping Common Core, empowering parents to make the best decision for their students and getting our Constitution back in the classrooms in a big way!
鈥� Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL)
Other than that remark, DeSantis has not elaborated much about how he would pursue this goal if he won the contest, or where it would fall on his list of priorities.
The common-core standards debuted in 2010. But politicans began calling for states to dump them after the federal government gave states incentives to adopt the standards. Teachers struggling with a lack of appropriate materials and looming tests tied to the standards pushed back, too. Many states subsequently replaced or renamed them, though several dozen still use the standards or close copies of them.
In the Sunshine State, reading and math expectations are now simply called the Florida Standards鈥攂ut the state appears to have kept most common-core content while adding some pieces, including a cursive writing mandate and some calculus expectations. The state was not among those included in a review of states that .
In general, much of the political brouhaha around the common core seems to have faded, though a recent poll by the journal Education Next than the concept of shared reading and math standards.
DeSantis鈥� campaign spokeswoman didn鈥檛 immediately return a message left for her at Republican party headquarters in Florida.
But if education gets an airing in the next few months, common core could be among the topics. And many eyes are on this race, especially after Andrew Gillum pulled out a surprising win in the Florida Democratic gubernatorial primary. The promise of a gubernatorial battle between a Republican who has embraced President Trump鈥檚 rhetoric facing off against a Democrat who has received the blessing of Bernie Sanders, the standard-bearer of the progressive wing of the party, is irresistible. It鈥檚 also
Gillum鈥檚 campaign site is more detailed on education policy than DeSantis鈥�, but it doesn鈥檛 mention the standards. Gillum does, however, criticize high-stakes testing.
Jeffrey Henig, a professor of public policy and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, said DeSantis could be hoping to energize core Republican voters with the reference to the standards. 鈥淚f DeSantis believes that his main goal is turning out Republicans, it鈥檚 possible including it in his platform could help, tied to a broader message about resistance to interference from Washington, D.C.,鈥� he said.
It seems less likely to appeal to other voters who don鈥檛 follow the topic that closely (other than teachers, who lean Democratic), Henig noted, but that also means that there鈥檚 probably little downside to revisiting the issue.
Ron DeSantis, Republican candidate for Florida Governor, waits for the start of a news conference after an airboat tour of the Florida Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.鈥�Wilfredo Lee/AP