Dive Brief:

• Mississippi education officials rallied behind the Common Core State Standards on Friday after Gov. Phil Bryant gives rails against the benchmarks.  
• Bryant on Thursday called the standards "a failed program" as he said that the state had the responsibility to create its own standards.  
• In response, the state superintendent and chairman of the state Board of Education struck back, saying the standards are necessary for improving the state's lagging achievement rate.  

Dive Insight:

It's not just the state superintendent and chairman of the state Board of Education who are going on the defensive when it comes to Gov. Bryant's comments. "I just think it would be disruptive to those educators and students to do an about-face and adopt lower standards," Senate Education Committee Chairman Gray Tollison (R-Oxford) told the Associated Press. "I'm troubled this has gotten into the political realm, but obviously that's going to happen."

This flip-flopping around the Common Core is nothing new. In fact, Bryant's stance feels reminiscent to the recent actions of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. In both scenarios, the governors are in direct conflict with their state's legislative and education leaders.