An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — While there was disagreement in a panel discussion last week in South Charleston about whether the new educational standards adopted in December for West Virginia are acceptable, at least the panelists agreed on one aspect. The fuss over Common Core standards has become a distraction, and on that point they were correct.
Isn’t it time to move on and stop fixating on whether the new standards are far enough removed from the benchmarks that were adopted in the state just a few years ago? The prudent answer would be “yes,” rather than to threaten further disruption in the state’s education system.
In last year’s legislative session, an effort to repeal the Common Core standards that had been accepted by West Virginia and a large majority of other states was one of the main themes of Republicans, who for the first time in decades had a majority in both legislative chambers. That effort failed because the Senate and House could not agree on how they wanted to accomplish the repeal.