AZ Gov. Ducey Wants Education Standards Reviewed ‘In Their Entirety’

In a speech to his state’s education board Monday, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona said the math and language arts standards need to be reviewed “in their entirety.” Ducey did not call for Common Core to be repealed outright, however.

Ducey, who was sworn in earlier this year, reminded the state board that he opposed Common Core during the course of his campaign, even though he did not call for an outright reversal of its repeal Tuesday.

“Our state needs to act so we can move forward,” Ducey said. “Begin by reviewing the English Language Arts and Mathematics standards in their entirety to ensure that our children are well served by the standards you develop—with full transparency.”

This review should include input from people at all levels of education from every corner of our state – including parents, teachers, principals, and content experts – and the focus needs to be on an Arizona solution.

And in any instance during your review, you find situations where Arizona standards can outperform or improve our current standards, I ask you to recommend replacement immediately.

Last week, Ducey’s fellow GOP governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, went a step further by calling for his state to pull out of Common Core altogether and replace them with state-approved standards.

“[T]he standards will be approved by majority vote of both houses of the Legislature through an up or down vote with recommendations sent to BESE for amendments,” Jindal’s office said in a statement. BESE refers to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Bayou State would join Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina as states in leaving Common Core. Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia never adopted the federal standards.

h/t: The New York Times

This post originally appeared on Western Journalism – Informing And Equipping Americans Who Love Freedom