This one's a big deal. Last week, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin reversed her previous support for the Common Core State Standards and signed legislation to repeal the new school guidelines and return to the curriculum from four years ago. She received thousands of requests from constituents on both sides of the issue after the state legislature sent her the bill, which sat on her desk until almost the last day for her to act.
"We are capable of developing our own Oklahoma academic standards that will be better than Common Core," Fallin said as she signed the bill. The state is now tasked with doing just that before 2016. Fallin's sentiment upon signing the bill is no different than the views she expressed six months ago, but the outcome is very different. In December, she signed an executive order decreeing that Oklahoma's Common Core curriculum be the sole responsibility of Oklahomans, eschewing federal input. But that executive order was intended to keep the current curriculum in place. The legislation she signed to repeal Common Core will undo all that work and require schools to revert to their pre-Common Core curriculum.
And just to add to the awkwardness, Fallin is currently the chairman of the National Governor's Association, which created Common Core.