The end of Common Core under any name in Florida. The education establishment shakeup is underway
Excerpt: Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to create new state curriculum standards that would eliminate “the vestiges of Common Core,” he announced in Cape Coral on Thursday.
“We stuck with Common Core then we re-branded it … It’s all the same. It all needs to be looked at, it all needs to be scrutinized,” DeSantis said during the announcement at Ida S. Baker High School, flanked by Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran and local school administrators.
DeSantis announced an executive order asking Corcoran to spend a year creating new state curriculum standards, which would then be presented to the Legislature for the 2020 session, which starts in January.
Bottom Line: At this point it's way too early to know what’s next. I’m also not one to simply declare success because simply “something is happening” but here’s the thing. Something has needed to happen. On one hand it’s true that Florida’s been on the upswing nationally in education rankings in recent years. On the other hand, what does that really mean? I’ll give you a couple of examples. Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties earned “A” ratings for the public schools overall last year, right? Now an A is as good as it gets. I mean no disrespect generally but take a look at the average high-school grad. Is the level of education in Palm Beach or Miami-Dade generally about as good as it gets for high schoolers or have we just lowered the bar enough that we’re grading on a significant curve? There are a bunch of examples I could use but how about something as basic as financial literacy. Here are a couple of numbers to illustrate the point using a combination of FINRA and Center for Financial Literacy data.
- 46%
- 9.4%
Know what those two numbers are? The approximate basic financial literacy levels for graduates and the percentage of graduates who are proficient. To put it another way, the average high-school graduate is financially illiterate. And that potentially deserves an A? And that’s just one clear example of how underwhelming “success” is in our education establishment. And btw, if you want to know how awful financial education is generally across the country – Florida's in the upper half of state with those numbers! Anyway, point is – an A isn’t what it used to be and what’s behind door number two is appealing to me at this point.
Governor DeSantis has also placed emphasis on civics education as part of a rebuild. If we have reforms that mandate financial literacy and teach civics effectively – count me in.