How Much Will the Common Core Cost?
States face key spending decisions as they implement the Common Core State Standards, and a new study finds that they could save about $927 million—or spend as much as $8.3 billion—depending on the approaches they choose in three vital areas: curriculum materials, tests, and professional development.
The report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, issued today, examines the net costs of three hypothetical transition routes to the new standards in mathematics and English/language arts.
The “business as usual” approach, which features buying hard-copy textbooks, giving annual paper-based assessments, and delivering in-person professional development to teachers, is the most expensive. Over the next one to three years, it would cost states $8.3 billion, according to the Washington-based think tank.
That rounded figure represents the difference between the $3.9 billion it estimates states currently spend on tests, curricular materials, and professional development and the $12.1 billion it estimates as their gross spending if they took the business-as-usual approach to those three elements in implementing the common standards.
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