Public Support For ‘Common Core’ Falls to Record Low

The annual Education Next poll shows that public support for the Common Core State Standards has fallen to a record low.

According to the survey, support for the Common Core education plan dropped to 50 percent this year, down from 58 percent in 2015 and from 83 percent in 2013.

When political affiliation is a factor, Republican support for the plan plummeted from 82 percent in 2013 to 39 percent in 2016. Democrat support fell from 86 percent in 2013 to 60 percent in 2016.

The poll finds that, among teachers, support for the program has dropped from 87 percent in 2013, to 54 percent in 2014, to 44 percent in 2015, and continuing at that level in 2016.

The poll surveyed 4,181 adults, aged 18 and older, including oversamples of 1,571 parents and 609 teachers during May and June.

According to EdNext, it is the Common Core “brand” that is problematic for the program. The education journal states that when a second group of participants were asked if they support “the use of the same standards across states,” without the mention of “Common Core,” two-thirds of respondents say they are supportive. Teachers, however, appear to be less influenced by the name “Common Core,” according to the survey: only 50 percent of teachers say they approve of any uniform standards.

“It seems that a substantial share of teachers either realize that similar standards and Common Core are much the same, or that they dislike standards in general,” EdNext says.

However, in last year’s EdNext poll, results showed a drop in support from 68 percent in 2014 to 54 percent in 2015 in the group that was asked simply about “shared standards” without the mention of the “Common Core” name.

Many politicians in both major political parties have termed the Common Core “toxic” and “poisonous.” Jeb Bush’s support for the plan was thought to be a significant contributing factor to his demise in the 2016 GOP primaries. Similarly, emails uncovered by Wikileaks from the Democratic National Committee show communications directors warning colleagues not to discuss Common Core due to its unpopularity.

“Support for Common Core continues to just plummet,” Lindsey Burke, Will Skillman education fellow at the Heritage Foundation, tells Breitbart News. “Just half of respondents now support Common Core, down from 58 percent last year.”

Burke adds:

Support for the federally financed effort has dropped precipitously from it’s all-time high of 83 percent in 2013. The drop in support likely reflects the fact that respondents – especially parents – believe Common Core does not provide standards that lead to a high quality education, and that they have lost their voice in what is taught in their children’s schools. Notably, teachers remain quite dissatisfied with Common Core, with just 44 percent supporting the initiative.

Emmett McGroarty, education director at American Principles Project (APP), also tells Breitbart News that parents now know the Common Core standards are not the “rigorous” program pitched by its proponents.

“Politicians are on notice that they must fight to embrace high-quality standards,” McGroarty says. “Ever increasingly, parents are realizing that the Common Core standards lock their children into an inferior education that fails to prepare them for life and for college.”

“On a matter such as this, concerning the welfare of their children, parents will not shy from the fight,” he adds. “There’s no doubt that Common Core will continue to decline in popularity.”

The Common Core standards were developed by three private organizations in Washington D.C.: the National Governors Association (NGA), the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and progressive education company Achieve Inc. All three organizations were privately funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and none of these groups are accountable to parents, teachers, students, or taxpayers.

There is no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. None of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level.

Senior education fellow at APP Jane Robbins also explains, “The unaccountable people who created and imposed Common Core always think they know best, so they assumed that if they just got Common Core in place, parents might hate it at first but would come around to the elites’ point of view.”

“But they didn’t realize that parents — even if they’re not education ‘experts’ — recognize dumbed-down bunk when they see it, and that’s not what they want for their children,” she concludes. “Maybe they should have asked the parents first.”