Criser: Common Core Is Good For Business And Florida’s Economy
Scripps Research Institute
AT&T Florida president Marshall Criser III argues Common Core State Standards are good for business.
Marshall Criser III is the finalist to lead the Florida university system. He’s also an AT&T Florida executive and an open advocate for the Common Core State Standards.
Florida is one of 45 states which have adopted the math, English and literacy standards, which outline what students should know at the end of each grade. Critics have questioned the quality of the standards, whether they are appropriate for young students and the cost of training teachers and purchasing new classroom materials.
Criser has written an op-ed for the Tallahassee Democrat defending the standards. He argues Common Core will be good for Florida business and the state economy.
Note that Criser calls them “The Florida Standards,” more evidence of a campaign to rename Common Core in Florida:
Unfortunately, Florida employers face a skills gap in the state — an urgent shortage of a resource as basic as food, more valuable than gold and in higher global demand than oil. According to a study conducted by the Florida Council of 100, Florida businesses spend an estimated $3.5 billion each year training their employees in the basic skills they should have learned before entering the workforce.
The Florida Standards, our version of the Common Core State Standards as adopted by our state and 44 others a few years ago, give our schools an ambitious but reachable target to help close this gap. They focus on the key areas of mathematics and English language arts and help ensure that our high-school graduates are prepared to go to college or enter the workforce and compete in the global marketplace.
Criser recently spoke at one of the three Florida Department of Education public hearings to gather comments and suggestions about the standards. The department is going through the thousands of online submissions and public testimony to recommend changes to the State Board of Education.
