Schools chairman defends Common Core

Education: Schools chairman defends Common Core

By Charles Swenson
Coastal Observer

National education standards that will be implemented in the South Carolina public school curriculum next year will benefit students and teachers, according to the chairman of the Georgetown County Board of Education.

Jim Dumm, who has served on the board for 19 years, sees the Common Core standards adopted by 45 states as a natural progression from the time when Georgetown County didn’t even have common standards among its own schools.

He spoke this week to the Waccamaw Neck Democrats, an invitation extended after local Republican groups sponsored talks by Sheri Few, head of a group that is lobbying state lawmakers to reject the Common Core standards. Few is also a GOP candidate for state superintendent of education.

Republican opposition to the standards in English and math touches on a range of concerns including the effectiveness of the standards, the role of the federal government in education, the perceived liberal bias in curriculum and the collection of data to assess student progress. The Georgetown County Republican Party has adopted a resolution opposing Common Core, which was approved by the state in 2010 and has been introduced into the curriculum over the last two years.

Continue at:

http://www.coastalobserver.com/articles/2014/022714/2.html