Governor Nikki Haley wrote a letter of support for Senator Mike Fair’s bill, S. 604 that would block the common core state standards from being implemented.  The AP reported:

Gov. Nikki Haley supports Fair’s bill, as an extension of her frequent complaints of federal overreaching.

“Just as we should not relinquish control of education to the federal government, neither should we cede it to the consensus of other states,” she wrote in a letter to Fair, dated Wednesday.

The hearing brought Common Core opponents from groups in Washington, D.C., Boston and California, who argued the new standards are mediocre compared to South Carolina’s and that training and testing will be costly. They complain it falls fall short of the intended purpose of making students across the nation more competitive with their peers internationally.

South Carolina educators, however, disagreed, calling the standards strong. Both sides cited studies backing up their perspective.

Once the standards are implemented, South Carolina can’t tweak them, said Jane Robbins with the American Principles Project.

“If teachers don’t like it or parents don’t like it, there’s no one to call,” she said.

We will continue to monitor this bill’s progress.

Update: Here’s a copy of the letter that was sent embedded below:

Haley Letter to S.C. State Senator Mike Fair

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