As included in budget, approach is not as clear-cut as pledged

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Feb. 9, 2015 that Gov. Scott Walker has a "complicated relationship" with the Common Core state education standards.

In his first term, Walker gave the standards tacit early approval then switched up abruptly in the summer of 2014 and issued an explicit call for their repeal, the story noted.

The reversal came amid some pressure from conservatives in Wisconsin and around the country.

During the 2014 governor's race, Walker made  a very detailed promise on how and when he would seek repeal of the standards.

Speaking to reporters in early September, Walker said he believes the Common Core guidelines do not provide state educators, civic leaders and parents with enough say in determining what children should be learning at each grade level, WKOW-TV in Madison reported.

"I think the people of the state should be in charge of decisions like that, not people from outside of the state," Walker was quoted as saying.

Here's the specific part: "The governor said he would include a repeal of Common Core as part of a broader package aimed at improving schools he will bring to the legislature in January if re-elected."

Soon after the election, Walker softened his language on Common Core.

By January 2015, he was saying only that he didn't want school districts required to use Common Core, we noted in giving Walker a Half Flip for his changing position.

Walker put various school initiatives in his 2015-17 state budget proposal, unveiled in February 2015, and one touched on Common Core -- but it stopped well short of calling for repeal.

His plan reaffirms the right of districts to choose to use whatever standards they want, the Journal Sentinel reported: "But that's largely a toothless proposal because districts already have that authority, and all but Germantown have decided to use Common Core."

In other words the standards were already optional.

Instead of moving to try to dump the standards, Walker is killing the examination that is tied to Common Core.

Does that amount to "repeal?"

Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick argues it does, by making explicit school districts' freedom to choose.

But education researchers at a pro-repeal conservative think-tank, the Heartland Institute, said Walker's move was just a beginning.

"This move makes me question how serious Walker is about removing Common Core," wrote Heather Kays, a research fellow at Heartland. "The only way to truly remove Common Core is to repeal and replace the standards … Ohio's legislation could easily be used as a model."

Heartland senior fellow Bruno Behrend called it an "important first step."

We rate this promise Stalled.