Florida's education standards in jeopardy, DeSantis proposes changes

The Florida Standards Listening Tour that currently touching all corners of the state is meeting some resistance from educators, as teachers and “stakeholders” are expressing their concerns over a new proposal to change existing school education standards.

Florida Standards, previously dubbed “Common Core” by conservative activists, could receive an overhaul for ELA and Math according to the latest draft presented by the DeSantis administration.

Educators contend that they have been left with very little time to review the draft before the proposal is presented during public hearings, hearings that in some cases, will be held more than an hour’s commute from “major population centers.”

Educators widely support the existing education standards, as a recent poll shows that 80% of those recently polled do not want the standards changed.

An education standard rumble is in the making, as educators are urging other educators to show up to the proposed meetings and express their views and opinions over changing the existing standards.

“The Florida Standards, what we have in schools now and were just reviewed and revised a few years ago, are good academic standards. Can they be better? Absolutely. I’ve been in education for 13 years and know that academic standards are always being revised to make them stronger, more rigorous, or to address shortcomings that weren’t initially seen. When you know better, you do better! Starting from scratch would be ill-advised as it would reset the clock and cause us to lose all the resources, benefits, and learnings that have made tremendous differences in our classrooms.”- Brian Dean, Math Content Lead for the non-profit instruction Partners, and former high school teacher.

Amy Utter Spies, a school teacher at Title I school in Volusia County, warns that DeSantis and Corcoran are putting current education standards “in jeopardy” by proposing this draft that “ severely” weakens academic expectations around the state.

“But I fear all that hard work is in jeopardy. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran have reopened the standards process, releasing a draft proposal with new standards that severely weaken academic expectations in the state,” said Spies “Thoughtful review of our academic benchmarks with the goal of strengthening the standards is welcomed. Unfortunately, the proposed draft standards lack coherence. They do not build on students’ prior understanding across grade levels. In addition, the proposed standards fail to include application to real-world problems.”

Since his days in the U.S. Congress, Gov. DeSantis has opposed Common Core, as has Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, so with this latest standards proposal could be the beginning of a rollback of Florida’s education standards.

“The Florida Charter School Alliance supports Gov. DeSantis and Commissioner Corcoran’s higher standards,” stated Ralph Arza.