Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill to repeal the Common Core education standards, ridding Oklahoma schools of the new math and English guidelines that were set to go into effect this coming school year.

The bill was passed in the House and Senate the final day of the 2014 session and requires the state to return to previous standards that were used prior to 2010 and encourages new ones to be developed by 2016.

The Common Core standards were adopted in 2010 in Oklahoma and also adopted by over 40 states, but the concern is that the standards represent a federal takeover of education. Gov. Fallin worked hard to mollify these concerns back in December — even signing an executive order that states Oklahoma will be responsible for deciding how to implement the standards – but opposition continued to grow.

The business community actually supports more rigorous standards with the intent to better prepare students for life after high school in college or the workforce.

The Oklahoma Academic Standards, which are aligned with Common Core standards in math and English, were to be reflected in tests administered to students’ during the next school year.  State education officials say that over 60 percent of the school districts in the state have already aligned the curriculum with the new standards.

I’m not sure if repealing Common Core in Oklahoma was a smart choice or not. Like other states like Indiana, the state-founded standards may be just as rigorous as the others, meaning that a lot of time and resources will go into developing the same thing in a different package.