WILDER’S STATEMENT

SEPTEMBER 16, 1993

*The following are excerpts from Governor Wilder’s statement about his order ending the Common Core of Learning initiative.  See editorial on previous page.

The World Class Education initiative, of which the common Core of Learning is a significant component, was introduced with the best intentions and with goals that must be met if Virginia is to achieve educational excellence into the 21^st Century.  I believe that Virginia’s students need to be judged on their ability to meet our highest standards of achievement, and that current evaluation standards do not go far enough to ensure the result we desire – students prepared for the workforce of tomorrow.

Unfortunately, in formulating a new approach to Virginia education, our reform efforts have become tied to other fashionable approaches to curriculum reform.   Make no mistake:  I do not now, nor have I ever, endorsed changing Virginia’s education standards to encompass values-based education.  Knowledge and proficiency or basic skills must remain the basis for education in our commonwealth.

At the very center of all [our] goals [for our students] must be a rigorous curriculum of basic facts, knowledge, and information, and from that we can never retreat.

Judging on this basis, I have determined that the Common Core of Learning initiative has strayed from our World Class Education goals.  Too much time and effort have been placed on concepts with laudable goals, but that may in fact serve to weaken educational standards for Virginia’s children.

While much of the opposition to the common core of Learning has been based on misinformation and hysteria, an argument made by some opponents has great merit – that our commonwealth should not interfere with localities’ ability to maintain a rigorous curriculum that meets the highest standards.  Our role is to buttress the good works of localities, not to block them.

The opposition has had an impact; and some supporters of the Common Core of Learning have suggested trying a new start, going back to the beginning with our initial goals and coming up with a new proposal.  Clearly, not enough public input went into the development of the Common Core of Learning.  There were no focused discussions on components of the proposal, and no grassroots consensus for reform was allowed to grow.

But I have concluded that more public input and a better public relations campaign would not be sufficient to make this proposal more acceptable to me and other Virginians concerned about the future of our children.

Of greatest concern to me is the cost of reform efforts and the potential future costs of a re-formulation.  This year, of the nearly $3 million we will spend on our World Class Education Initiative, the lion’s share will go toward Common Core of Learning programs.  For fiscal 1994-1995, the Board of Education proposes to spend nearly $4 million for model schools, assessments of programs, and the development of staff, and these costs would increase to $6.7 million for fiscal 1995-96.

This is too much money to be spending on experiments when our state faces another fiscal crunch.  Our educational dollars must be spent more wisely today than ever before.  Teachers need adequate pay, facilities must be kept in top condition, and school books and equipment must be of the highest quality. Our job is to focus our spending on the most basic needs and to ensure that local efforts to improve standards are rewarded and emulated.

I would hope that the support for our World Class Education Initiative that members of the business community have shown now can be rechanneled to the communities.  Reform must come from the bottom up, and parents must be concerned about how their children are taught – not just to block the ideas of some, but to offer solutions that we all can benefit from.