By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
It has not been a good summer for the controversial common core standards as more states have opted out of the unpopular new curriculum standards. New polling came out over the summer by Rasmussen showing that parents with school age children now overwhelming oppose the Common Core Standards. The education world was rocked again on Monday, August 18, by a new polling that shows that support for Common Core even among the American teachers tasked with teaching the controversial new plan has dropped tremendously in the last 12 months.
According to original reporting by “The Daily Caller’s” Blake Neff, the polling by the group, Education Next, show that support for Common Core education standards has fallen significantly from a year ago. In 2013, 76 percent of teachers polled said that they supported Common Core and only 12 percent were opposed. As more teachers across the county have gotten the chance to experience the unpopular standards themselves that support has evaporated.
In 2014 only 46 percent of American teachers still support the experimental new standards, while 40 percent now report that they are opponents. Only 11 percent of teachers said that they “strongly support” the Common Core standards, while 18 percent strongly oppose the new standards. 14 percent responded that they neither support or oppose the Common Core.
Increasing opposition by both American parents and teachers has affected the general public as well. Support for the now oppose the new nationwide education standards, endorsed by President Barack H. Obama’s U.S. Department of Education, has declined from 65 percent of the public in 2013 to just 53 percent in 2014, a bare majority. Americans who state they oppose the standards have increased from 13 percent to 26 percent.
Support for Common Core is plummeting greatest among Republicans. According to the poll, a year ago 57 percent of Republicans still supported Common Core and only 16 percent were opposed to the plan. Now only 43 percent of Republicans responded that they still support the controversial new standards while 37 percent identified themselves as opponents.
For a very Republican state, like Alabama, it will be hard for what will still likely be a Republican dominated legislature to ignore the opinions of the GOP electorate. The Alabama Republican Executive Committee was ahead of this curve and demanded that the legislature vote to repeal Common Core in 2013……a move that was stubbornly blocked by Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh (R) from Anniston in the 2013 legislative session and again in the 2014 session.
Alabama is one of the states still intent on forcing schools to implement the increasingly controversial standards. Legislation to allow local school boards the freedom to opt out of the new standards also died in the Republican controlled Alabama Senate in 2014.
Alabama is doing away with its high school graduation exam, however 71 percent of the public favors graduation exams, as do 66 percent of teachers. Only 20 percent of the public and 29 percent of teachers oppose making students pass a test to get a diploma. 60 percent of African Americans and 73 percent of Hispanics also support graduation exams.
51 percent of the public favors using public dollars to pay private school tuition for children in a failing public school. 35 percent of the public are opposed. However only 33 percent of teachers support such legislation and 55 percent are opposed. 65 percent of African Americans favor this legislation and only 14 percent are opposed.
In 2013 the legislature passed such legislation in the Alabama Accountability Act.
The poll was conducted in May and June of 2014. 5,266 U.S. adults were surveyed. The poll reportedly has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.
