The rollout of "Common Core" is one of the more misunderstood issues in education. A states' initiative that has been painted by some as a federal intrusion is misleading. That said, I don't have any problem with visiting about standards. Whether we call them "Common Core" or "Uncommon Core," I just want them to be rigorous and demanding. Standards are nothing more than a target. It is up to the school districts to establish curriculum and decide how to hit those targets.
The United States has slipped out of the top 20 in the world in terms of how well it educates its youth. Wyoming, despite spending more per capita than any other state on education, languishes at the middle of the pack. Many of our students need remedial classes when they arrive at the colleges and university. That is what the legislature's accountability work has been about, and that's why, nationally, we are having a conversation about more rigorous standards.
Whatever standards we choose, I hope it will give us the opportunity to develop comparative data with other states.