Tomorrow could be a moment of truth for educators and lawmakers pushing California to adopt a new set of national curriculum standards.
Earlier this year, California enacted a law requiring the state Board of Education to consider adopting national "common core" curriculum standards being jointly developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and heavily promoted by the Obama administration.
The final version of the standards will be released tomorrow, and Californians will have a chance to see just how much they diverge from what the state currently uses. If there is a substantial difference, the cost could be enormous.
A new report issued today by EdSource, a nonprofit non-partisan group, says the cost to the state could be as much as $1.6 billion. At a time when the state faces a $20 billion budget deficit, coming up with those kinds of funds won't be easy.
New "curriculum frameworks" and instructional materials for English and math could cost $800 billion. Training teachers could cost $765 million. Another $20 million would be needed to train principals. Creating a new state test would add to the total bill.
There could be additional costs. The state's complicated API (Annual Performance Index) and AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) "accountability system" - ranking schools based on multiple measures - might have to be reworked, as would the state's high school exit exam.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell believes the EdSource estimates are too high, and don't take into account the fact that California is already spending funds on professional development and other tasks that it would have to undertake even if it didn't adopt national standards.
"This is part of normal business anyway," said Hilary McLean, a spokesperson for O'Connell, pointing out that California has to revise its own curriculum standards from time to time.
Because of that, McLean argues that California would benefit from an "economy of scale" afforded by having a national organizations develop the standards, new tests and so, rather than California having to cover all the costs itself.
"We are not going to have to completely reinvent the wheel on California's dime," McLean said. "We will have the benefit of partner states, organizations like the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and nationally renowned experts. It is a cost effective way to refine our curriculum."
Let's hope that will be the case, because as the EdSource report points out, "implementation takes place in the context of reduced budgets." That is a polite way of describing California's current budget disaster, which continues to spew red ink, with no realistic way to cap it anywhere in sight.
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