Strong backers of the education standards originally created by the National Governors Association, including its current chair, Gov. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.), are distancing themselves from the reform.
House Minority Leader Scott Inman blames Fallin for failing to lead on the issue.
“Because of a flurry of pressure from a fringe element in the political spectrum, she has caved,” the Del City Democrat says. “Her leadership is non-existent on this issue. For the head of the organization that helped to create these standards to turn around and let them die under her watch is an embarrassment on behalf of the governor.”
Fallin was not a part of the National Governors Association when that organization proposed the standards. And Inman acknowledges even the Democratic caucus doesn't agree.
“We’re mixed on the issue of Common Core, certainly. There are parts of it that I don’t like, and parts of it that my members do like,” Inman says. “We’re not here to necessarily give a full-throated endorsement of Common Core, but what we do want is leadership.”
Some very conservative groups have called the Common Core standards a federal takeover of local schools. But Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa) says he has been hearing from a variety of constituents concerned about the new education standards, not just from the right-wing fringe.
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