CABL President Barry Erwyn Affirms Support For Common Core, Disputes Critics

Council For a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwyn said "Common Core is a common sense way of reaching higher standards for our kids."

Erwyn made the comments on "Nathan & Bernie in the Morning," and he said it was "really hard to truly connect [the] dots" on criticisms from opponents of the standards. He called allegations of a federal intrusion into the public school system the stuff of conspiracy theorists.

"Yes, it's going to take some differences in the way we teach kids and our expectations of kids, but we think it's the next important step to really raise the achievement level of our kids," Erwyn said.

Erwyn appeared to dismiss incidents of objectionable material being taught in some classrooms as being introduced "inappropriately by teachers. In some of those cases, teachers and administrators said they obtained their classroom resources from websites or other sources associated with the Common Core standards.

"If a teacher introduced that into the classroom, then that was a mistake on the part of the teacher or the principal or the school," Erwyn said. "Because all of that curriculum piece is controlled by the district--not by the state, not by Common Core."

To listen to the full interview with Erwyn, click on the 'Play' button below.