Approximately 4,000 people have officially voiced their support for the Common Core in New York state, according to High Achievement New York.

The pro-Common Core Learning Standards coalition released a statement regarding the feat, explaining that those who signed the petition wish to see the standards stay in New York state.

Steve Sigmund, executive director of High Achievement New York, said the petition shows there is support in the state for the Common Core.

“We were pleased to see so much wide support,” Sigmund said. “Like 44 other states, New York adopted higher learning standards to prepare our kids for college and careers in the 21st century. This isn’t a shadowy, top-down program – it was developed by the states.”

He said the Common Core Learning Standards have been helpful in the past few years by improving ELA and math scores, and introducing rigor into the curriculum.

“(Previously), we had a failing educational system that was particularly failing a large segment of students in New York state,” Sigmund said. “Too many kids were getting left behind.”

He added going back to that system would be detrimental to education in New York, and would hurt the students in the long run.

Recently, Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement regarding the Common Core Learning Standards in which he stated that the standards were “not working, and must be fixed.” Cuomo also said the implementation of the standards had been “deeply flawed.”

Sigmund said he felt the governor’s comments reflected a desire to improve the standards, and not a desire to remove them.

“What the governor announced was giving permission to improve the implementation,” he said. “(High Achievement New York) is all for ways to improve implementation, but what we are not for is going back on the standards and getting rid of them.”

Sigmund said a majority of the anti-Common Core groups want nothing to do with improving the standards, and wish to see them gone.

Despite the wishes of these groups, he said there is a large amount of support in the state for the standards.

“That’s part of the point of the petition,” Sigmund said. “If you look at the polling, you always get 50 percent (in support of) higher learning standards.”

Even with many dissenting voices against the standards and an assessment opt-out movement which caused 20 percent of students across New York to refuse state testing, Sigmund said he doesn’t believe High Achievement New York is alone in its support for the Common Core.

“We don’t feel like a lone voice of support at all,” he said. “We hope we are a good organizing vehicle to give more of a voice to the civic and business sectors, as well as for parents.”

High Achievement New York is a coalition of organizations and individuals in support of the learning standards which includes the Albany Colonie Chamber of Commerce, America Achieves, American Association of University Women, Association for a Better New York, Buffalo ReformED, Buffalo Niagara Partnership, Buffalo Urban League, Business Council of New York State, Business Council of Westchester, Center for American Progress, Center for Hispanic Families and Children, Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, Council for a Strong America, Educators 4 Excellence, Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, National Council of La Raza, New York Urban League, Otsego County Chamber of Commerce, Parent Power Project-Rochester, Partnership for Inner-City Education, Printing Industries Alliance, Rochester Urban League, StudentsFirstNY and Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce.

The group receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Robin Hood Foundation.

For more information regarding the petition, or the coalition, visit highachievementny.org.