Governor Chris Christie at one time supported the Common Core education standards, unlike most Republicans. However, on Thursday, May 28, 2015, Christie stated that the program is “simply not working.”
Christie was at Burlington County Community College and he said that the Common Core “has only brought confusion and frustration to our parents…And has brought distance between our teachers and the communities where they work. Instead of solving problems in our classrooms, it is creating new ones. And when we aren’t getting the job done for our children, we need to do something different.”
Christie decided to meet up with the Department of Education Commissioner David Hespe to get teachers and parents together to develop a new system that will be beneficial to all teachers, parents, and students.
Freshman Kristina Novak said, “The education standards today can be unbelievable. Sometimes schools give us tests with things we haven’t even learned. I believe that there will have to be a lot of changes made to correct the past issues Common Core has caused.”
This has been a recurring issue for the citizens of New Jersey, and has come up at several of Christie’s town hall meetings in the past year. In response, a study was created last year over the summer to study the impact of the Common Core system.
Christie’s current remarks about the system are a total 180 from last year. In Las Vegas at a school summit, Christie said, “We’re doing a Common Core in New Jersey and we’re going to continue. And this is one of those areas where I’ve agreed more than the president than not.”
A lot of people criticize the set of academic principles that were adopted by 46 states in 2010. It has been an issue to students, teachers, and parents. Teachers now feel they are “teaching to the test” due to Common Core-driven assessments like PARCC. Students become stressed out over state testing, and parents have to deal with their children stressing out about tests.
An anonymous student said, “State tests and other requirements for students are the reason why students don’t try. They believe they cannot pass the test, so they never try. That’s why the Common Core system isn’t effective.”
What changes do you think could be made to improve the education standards of today?