Georgia’s Republican leaders vote to withdraw from Common Core

ATLANTA – Leaders of Georgia’s Republican Party voted Saturday to press state officials to withdraw from a national program that creates a basic set of educational standards.

Party leaders voted unanimously to ask the state to withdraw from Common Core – an initiative aimed at creating basic reading, math and language arts requirements. The initiative has been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Georgia Republicans want to withdraw from the program because they believe state officials should maintain control over Georgia’s educational standards, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“This is a huge mistake and our students will suffer because of this,” state Sen. William Ligon, of Brunswick, told the newspaper. “This debate is something that should have occurred back in 2010 but it didn’t. Now we need to maintain our absolute control over our standards.”