Says they area a step backward for Indiana
By Ellie Price
(Evansville Courier & Press, January 15th, 2013)
INDIANAPOLIS — A Republican state senator wants to pull Indiana schools off a set of national education standards that he said are a “step backward for Indiana.”
In 2010, Indiana education officials took the first steps toward putting in place the Common Core standards that were developed by a group of state policy makers and have since been embraced by President Barack Obama.
Last year, Indiana adopted the standards for English and math, but Indiana has not implemented the science, social studies and history Common Core standards.
Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, said Indiana’s own standards are “far superior” to those of Common Core. Their adoption, he said, has resulted in a loss of local input from parents, teachers and administrators.
His Senate Bill 193 would shift the state away from Common Core. He drafted the proposed legislation at the urging of Indianapolis mothers Heather Crossin and Erin Tuttle.
Tuttle said Common Core led her third grader to learn “fuzzy math” taught out of sequence.
Tuttle said one textbook teaches students to subtract by starting in the hundreds, tens and then ones — opposite of the traditional way.