Gov. Mary Fallin signs Oklahoma Common Core ban

WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has signed legislation repealing the state's participation in the Common Core standards in favor of crafting their own.

"We are capable of developing our own Oklahoma academic standards that will be better than Common Core," Fallin said.

Fallin said Common Core, which had been intended to level the playing field for students nationwide, had been "usurped" by "President Obama and Washington bureaucrats... in an attempt to influence state education standards."

"The results are predictable," she said at the National Governors Association in January. "What should have been a bipartisan policy is now widely regarded as the president's plan to establish federal control of curricula, testing and teaching standards."

Fallin had been in favor of the adoption of Common Core, but in recent months had been bombarded with calls and letters urging her to sign legislation repealing the standards.

"The words 'Common Core' in Oklahoma are now so divisive that they have become a distraction that interferes with our mission of providing the best education possible for our children," she said.

Common Core was developed in 2009 by the NGA and Council of Chief State School Officers and was initially adopted by more than 40 states. But as the Obama administration has moved to provide incentives for adopting Common Core and other improvements, opposition has grown, particularly in red states.

Indiana has since formally withdrawn, and in North Carolina, the state house voted this week to do the same. In Missouri, which nearly repealed Common Core, lawmakers struck a compromise this week to keep it in place for at least two years.