The Ohio Channel
School districts have spent years preparing to implement the education standards known as Common Core -- which are set to start this coming school year.Now House Republicans are renewing their efforts to repeal the standards, and the bill could be on the fast track to the House floor.Republican State Rep. Andy Thompson of Marietta has been a vocal critic of the Common Core standards, which were developed by a group of state education leaders around the country.His new bill would repeal the standards and replace them with new provisions based on educational benchmarks used in Massachusetts.[audio href="http://audio2.ideastream.org/wcpn/2014/0728commoncore.mp3" title="Listen to the Radio Story "][/audio]Thompson said he understands that teachers and schools have put in a lot of work adjusting curriculum to Common Core but believes it’s still important to set Ohio on a different path.“Often people will say well we can’t stop now, we’re already going down the road,” Thompson said. “Well, if you’re going down the wrong road, I think you do need to stop and you need to revise course and you need to put in place, again as I said, something that is much more likely to succeed.”House leaders say a committee will hold meetings on the bill starting next month.Several groups including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Buckeye Association of School Administrators, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers oppose a repeal of Common Core.