Florida Governor Orders End To Common Core Standards For Schools

CAPE CORAL, FL — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Thursday that will eliminate the Common Core standards from Florida schools and replace them with yet-to-be determined Florida standards.

"Today we are doing an executive order that is going to instruct (Florida Education) Commissioner Corcoran to get to work and come up with good standards for the state of Florida, which will include eliminating Common Core and the vestiges of Common Core," DeSantis announced during a lunchtime visit to Ida S. Baker High School in Cape Coral.

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The governor said he heard from a number of parents during the campaign who were frustrated by Florida's education system. The governor's office later confirmed that the executive order had been signed.

Click here to read the order. It directs the Florida education secretary to conduct a comprehensive review of the state's K-12 academic standards with recommendations for changes to be submitted by Jan. 1, 2020.

Those recommendations must:

• Articulate how Florida will "eliminate Common Core (Florida Standards) and ensure we return to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic."
• Provide a road map to make Florida’s standards "number one in the nation."

• Reflect Florida Department of Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s consultation with "relevant stakeholders to include parents and teachers."

• Deem how to increase the "quality of instructional curriculum."
• "Suggest innovative ways to streamline testing."

• Identify opportunities to "equip high school graduates with sufficient knowledge of America’s civics, particularly the principles reflected in the Unites States Constitution, so as to be capable of discharging the responsibilities associated with American citizenship."

• "Outline a pathway for Florida to be the most literate state in the nation."

"One of the things that we would constantly hear about on the campaign trail is a frustration, with a lot of parents in particular, with this idea of Common Core and some of the testing, and some of the things that go into that. It's called Florida Standards," said DeSantis.

The governor said he wants to see standards that are "authentic Florida-based" standards.

"Let's just try to get this right. We want to be very high quality. We want to demand excellence, but I think we want to do that in a way that's responsive to some of the concerns that we've had over the many number of years," he explained.

DeSantis, who has two young children, elaborated on the idea of the road map.

"He's also going to tell us how we can increase the quality of our instructional curriculum," the governor said. "He's going to suggest innovative ways to streamline some of the testing and to make that so it's something that is measuring success, but we're not just teaching to a test."

Finally, the governor said the commissioner will be asked to identify ways to make civics education a priority in Florida.

"You really need to understand what makes America the country it is," said DeSantis. "I think it's important — and when we're sending some of these students out — that they're not only prepared for a career, or prepared for higher education, but they are prepared to discharge the duties of citizenship."

Photo courtesy Florida Governor's Office