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Governor Hassan Vetoes Bill To Pull Plug On Common Core

Thomas Favre-Bulle
/
Flickr Creative Commons

The bill would have stopped the state from implementing the Common Core State Standards, which set goal posts for skills students should know at the end of each grade.

In a statement Governor Hassan argued individual districts are not required to use the standards and so changing the law was unnecessary. While districts don’t have to use the benchmarks, they are required to take standardized tests which are based on them.

The state’s largest business group, the Business and Industry Association, has also declared its opposition to pulling the plug on the Common Core, writing that to do so “sends the message that mediocre is okay.”

New Hampshire adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010. 46 other states initially adopted the standards as well, but South Carolina, Indiana and Oklahoma have since withdrawn.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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