South Carolina's top education administrator has decided to withdraw the state from the consortium that would test Common Core standards in the coming school year.

In a letter sent to the chairman of the State Board of Education on Monday, Superintendent of Education Mick Zais said he learned he has the authority to withdraw the state from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and was exercising his power to do so.

"I am not wed to any particular test," wrote Zais in the letter. "I want to have a high quality assessment that meets the specific needs of South Carolina, at a competitive price. If we continue to focus only on Smarter Balanced, we lose any opportunity to consider alternatives." Jackie Hicks, president of The South Carolina Education Association said Zais "has proclaimed himself State School Czar," adding Zais has placed his "extreme political agenda ahead of what's best for our students."

Finally, there is the description of the Second Amendment published in a book approved by Common Core for use in elementary schools.

Regarding the Second Amendment, the authors of the book state:

This amendment states that people have the right to certain weapons, providing that they register them and they have not been in prison. The founding fathers included this amendment to prevent the United States from acting like the British who had tried to take weapons away from the colonists.