Will indiana drop common-core standards for good?

In his State of the State speech last night, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence offered perhaps his strongest indication yet that he wants the state to drop entirely out of the common core. Right now,

Indiana is just on a break from the common standards. Pence, a Republican, said: “Hoosiers have high expectations when it comes to Indiana schools. That’s why Indiana decided to take a

time-out on national education standards. When it comes to setting standards for schools, I can assure you, Indiana’s will be uncommonly high. They will be written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers

and will be among the best in the nation.” If Indiana truly _un_-adopted the standards, it would be the first state to do so. To be sure, there have been states that have tinkered around the

edges of the standards to make them more their own. And other states have rebranded or renamed them to deal with the common core pushback. Plus, there are four states that never adopted

them in the first place. It’s important to note that Indiana has a No Child Left Behind Act waiver, in which it said that its plan for college- and career-ready standards was to stick with

the common core. Any big changes would have to be approved by the feds. In other words, Indiana will need a clear Plan B if it decides to drop common core.