Controversy Heats Up Over New Ohio Education Standards

Ohio is poised to implement new education standards during the next school year. Ohio joins 45 other states in adopting Common Core standards in math and English. The standards were quietly approved in 2010. But now critics like Kelly Kohls, the head of the Ohio School Board Leadership Council, say Common Core does not reflect the values of Ohioans. Kohls says "Common Core is a bunch of standards put forth by people who are not Ohioans, not by the state of Ohio, adopted by the state but it was developed by people outside our state." But Emmy Partin, who oversees Ohio policy matters at the Fordham Institute, says states are free to opt out of the program all together or change teaching materials to reflect local values. Partin counters "The curriculum decisions about how to teach the content, the texts that you read to the kids and teach them everyday in the classroom, that is all a local decision." Emmy Partin of the Fordham Institute and Kelly Kohls of the Ohio School Boards Leadership Council made their remarks today on All Sides with Ann Fisher.