Maryland Republicans Want Out of Common Core Initiative

Maryland House Republicans plan to push for the state’s withdrawal from the Common Core education initiative in the upcoming legislative session, reports theWashington Post.

Although Republicans are in the minority in both houses of the legislature, Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) told the annual fall convention of the Maryland Republican Party in Annapolis that the GOP will attempt to end Maryland’s participation in the Common Core State Standards initiative.

Maryland is one of 45 states, along with the District of Columbia, that have adopted the standards, an initiative designed to establish a single set of educational benchmarks for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and math, the newspaper said.

Critics, including Harford County Executive David R. Craig, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful, have said the initiative is too costly and gives too much control over Maryland classrooms to national testing organizations, the Post said.

Under the House GOP plan, if the state does not withdraw from Common Core as a whole, individual counties would be given the option to do so.