There’s an article on The State this week about the SC Superintendent killing Common Core with a plan of his that he intends to execute on his way out of office. The plan tells educators re-writing the standards to ignore Common Core:

Zais’ move — to shape what S.C. school children should know and be able to do in different grades, long after Zais has left office — has the support of some Common Core opponents and at least one candidate to succeed him.

But some state leaders, including the chairmen of the two education boards that must approve any new standards, said throwing Common Core out of the process of writing new standards violates state law.

Other critics, including the executive director of the state’s Education Overtsight Committee, say starting over is irresponsible.

Despite this year’s legislative furor, Common Core is South Carolina’s current education standard through the end of the 2014-15 school year. But new state standards are scheduled to take effect in the fall of 2015. – The State 7/11/14, Zais Says He Will Kill Common Core

That’s great that he is committed to really ridding SC of Common Core, but has Zais read the copyright and public license?  He has all he needs to direct a full re-write right there.

“The NGA Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) hereby grant a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to copy, publish, distribute, and display the Common Core State Standards for purposes that support the Common Core State Standards Initiative. These uses may involve the Common Core State Standards as a whole or selected excerpts or portions.”

SC has repealed Common Core and is therefore not supporting the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) any longer. South Carolina may not take parts as they wish if not supporting the CCSSI, South Carolina must re-write. This same theory applies to North Carolina’s attempt at repeal and replace.

The public should be aware of something though with North Carolina’s attempt: Dr. Atkinson and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) were in the process of revising our state standards when Common Core came along. Dr. Atkinson has made statements that our revision and Common Core were very similar. That similarity is not an accident. Given Dr. Atkinsons deep involvement with the CCSSO, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the NC revision was being patterned after the Common Core.

The public and the replacement commission should note that when SB 812 passes, and is hopefully signed into law without a veto having to be overidden, that they need to watch out for this ‘revision’ version Atkinson and DPI have waiting in the wings.