VIDEO REPLAY: Ed. chief King meets with Journal

The Poughkeepsie Journal met with state Education Commissioner John King today, Tuesday.

King said that implementation of the controversial Common Core learning standards will move forward.

Meanwhile, a major backlash against the standards from a number of parents, educators and elected officials continues.

"I think that's inevitable," King said, of the push-back the state is getting. In Massachusetts, new standards took getting used to in the 1990s, he added.

But across the state and nation, concerns exploded over the past school year about initiatives that came with Race to the Top, the federal grant program that brought with it the new standards, more state assessments and linked teacher evaluations.

"I think there's a mix of factors" making people upset, King said. "There's misinformation...that it was imposed by the federal government, that it's a conspiracy theory from corporations..."

States applied to take part in the $4.35 billion federal grant program, competing for chunks of the money.

King was a state senior deputy education commissioner when he coordinated the development of New York's Race to the Top application, bringing nearly $700 million to New York.

During an editorial board session with the Journal, King laid out arguments for the Core.

Readers sent in questions they had for the commissioner. Most of them had to do with Common Core.

A handful of protesters waited for King outside; Last time he was in Poughkeepsie, it was at an open forum, where tensions exploded after parents' comments were limited to a short period of the two-hour session.

See Wednesday's Journal for the full story.