In wrapping up business last week, the Indiana Legislature left the state of Indiana education in, perhaps, a state of confusion. Lawmakers approved and sent to Gov. Mike Pence a bill which “pauses” implementation of national Common Core State Standards. Of course, one problem with pausing implementation is that the program is already in place for Indiana kindergarten and first grade pupils. Do they go back or do they stand in place while the legislature decides whether it should attempt to override the Indiana Board of Education?
That could be another snag. It is the responsibility of the state board, not the legislature, to implement an education program such as Common Core, which it did in 2010. However, folks at the legislature seem to be operating under the assumption that they can toss out the new standards.
Actually, the bill allows for a legislative panel and state budget officials to examine the implications of Common Core this year — the pause year; that is, if it is signed by Gov. Mike Pence, who has billed himself as a champion of state education autonomy. It may help sway the issue with Pence, as well, in that opposition to Common Core was carried forward by Tea Party members.
That’s one of the choices here for the state, to go with the Tea Party or with a number of education panels in Indiana who support the national standards.
Perhaps they recognize that if Indiana becomes one of the few states in the nation to scrub Common Core, it would go back to its own educational standards that have failed to lift Indiana schoolchildren up to a higher level of academic success. And what happens down the road when Indiana young people take an SAT test based on Common Core education standards, designed for the great majority of students across the nation?
We wonder as well what sort of message we will be sending to business and industry considering Indiana for expansion if they come to realize that Indiana’s education standards are not in step with those of most other states. Is this a place that their employees will want to send their children to school?
It would be helpful if Pence declined to sign the bill, and instead allowed Common Core to move forward. Absent that, if he ends up signing the bill (if he hasn’t already), we hope the legislative panel would move swiftly in taking a look at the program and coming to the same conclusion as education officials in Indiana, that keeping Indiana on the Common Core track is the right course for Indiana’s future leaders.