- Michael D. Martinez, PhD, UF Department of Political Science
In 2009, Florida joined with 43 other states and the District of Columbia in the Common Core Standards Initiative, committing to developing a common set of academic benchmarks in math and the English Language Arts for elementary and secondary students in participating states. The initiative, which was convened by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State Officers, focused on developing standards that could be compared to those of other countries, while readying American high school graduates for college and the workforce. The standards were developed by teams of educators who drew on both education research and public feedback, and were adopted by the governors or education administrators of a majority of states shortly after their release in June 2010. While the federal government was not directly involved in the development of the Common Core standards, the competitive Race to the Top grants allocated additional points to states that adopted them. As a partnership among states, educators, private foundations, and the College Board, the Common Core initially received wide endorsement and little dissent when Florida and most other states adopted the standards in 2010.
Upon implementation, however, some parents and conservative groups became quite vocal in their criticism of the standards and their perception of federal intrusion on state and local schools’ authority to set their own education benchmarks, and social media are now littered with examples of “new math” that are attributed to the Common Core standards. A 2014 Gallup Survey found that a majority of Americans, including parents of school-age children, now oppose “having the teachers in your community use the Common Core State standards to guide what they teach,” though there was a significant partisan split on the question, as a majority of Democrats favored using the standards. Responding to public pressure, several states either delayed, defunded, or repealed the Common Core standards. In Florida, Governor Scott withdrew the state from a consortium that was developing the standards, while his predecessor and Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist, embraced the principles of the Common Core.
How much of the opposition to the Common Core is associated with its name? To find out, the UF Survey Research Center included a survey experiment in an October 2014 statewide poll, in which half of the respondents were asked one of two versions:
Some people believe that Florida should join with other states in forming the Common Core to establish high-quality academic standards in math and English that are consistent from state to state, while others believe that Florida should opt out of the Common Core and maintain its own standards for academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools. Do you support Florida joining Common Core, or opting out of Common Core? Or haven’t you thought much about this?
Some people believe that Florida should join with other states in establishing consistent high quality academic standards in math and English, while others believe that Florida should maintain its own standards for academic achievement in elementary and secondary schools. Do you support joining with other states, or maintaining Florida’s own standards? Or haven’t you thought much about this?
The idea of joining with other states to establish consistent standards received plurality support among likely voters who heard the question without the Common Core label. As shown in Figure 1, 42.9% of those voters thought that Florida should join with other states, 31.8% thought Florida should maintain its own standards, and 25.3% said that they hadn’t thought much about the issue or “don’t know.” Though there is significant opposition, joining with other states to establish high educational standards is appealing to a plurality of Floridians.
However, when asked with the Common Core label, support for cooperation with other states declines significantly. Among those respondents, only 28.2% favo