Florida’s Common Core standards have a new group of supporters: law enforcement. Police say higher standards can prevent crime.
The national anti-crime group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids released a paper in favor of Florida’s new standards for English language arts and math. The organization is made up of thousands of police, prosecutors, victims and other advocates for crime reduction."And our law enforcement leaders know that to make sure kids are employable, they need a good start and a good beginning", said Natasha O'Dell Archer.
O’Dell Archer is the national director for Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. She says the logic goes something like this: Higher standards in school mean students are better prepared for work or college. Which leads to higher employment and better wages—two factors associated with lower crime rates.
Chief Ian Moffett of the Miami Dade Schools Police Department has seen the connection from an employer’s perspective. He used to run a police academy training center.
"And I could tell you that when I saw young people coming in, we could tell automatically from their test scores which ones would succeed and which ones will not", Moffett said.
Members of the Fight Crime coalition hope their support will change critics’ minds about the standards.