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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina could be one step away from replacing Common Core education standards with state-developed guidelines, as the Legislature required last year.
The Education Oversight Committee voted 11-1 Monday to approve new math and reading standards, clearing the way for the Board of Education to give the final OK on Wednesday.
A law passed last spring required Common Core's replacement in the upcoming school year.
One of the Legislature's chief critics of Common Core called the new standards superior and more rigorous.
"We eventually have to trust somebody," said Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, a committee member. "People I know and trust tell me this draft is good. It's good for the kids. ... Teachers are not unanimous in this, but boy, oh boy, are they close."
The standards outline what students should know after completing each grade.
South Carolina was among more than 40 other states that adopted Common Core standards, replacing those that varied state-to-state. The Obama administration had encouraged states to sign on through incentives, and opponents across the country criticized it as a nationalization of education.
All of South Carolina's public colleges have certified the new standards, saying they adequately prepare students for college and careers after high school. That's essential for the state to maintain its waiver from the all-or-nothing provisions of No Child Left Behind, which otherwise requires every student to score proficiently on end-of-year tests.
According to a review by the oversight agency, the new standards exceed Common Core's demands while the content is similar. Across all grade levels, roughly 90 percent of the new standards align with Common Core's. Differences include adding instruction on coins and money in grades one and four, requiring fluency in multiplication tables in grade four, and adding cursive writing instruction in grades two and three.
The only no vote was cast by Deb Marks, vice president of the nonprofit that led South Carolina's anti-Common Core fight. The group, Parents Involved in Education, lobbied lawmakers last year to immediately repeal the standards. The one-year delay was a compromise.
Marks suggested keeping Common Core for another year as work on the new standards continued.
"We know it was rushed and everyone was trying to comply," she said, criticizing the standards as Common Core with minimal differences. "Our children deserve to have us spend more time on this."
That would require the Legislature to amend last year's law. The EOC's legislative members said that would be tough.
"We'd have to get the Legislature to effectively undo what we did," said Fair, who's opposed Common Core since 2010, when he was on the losing side of the EOC's vote to adopt the standards. "The Legislature isn't interested in talking about Common Core anymore."
Rep. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville, added, "I don't think the public would have an appetite to continue another year with Common Core."
South Carolina began rolling out Common Core standards statewide after the state Board of Education and Education Oversight Committee adopted them in 2010. Under last year's compromise, the final step of implementation — testing students on the Common Core standards — still occurs this school year.
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