Gov. Scott Walker called on the Wisconsin Legislature on Thursday to pass a bill repealing Common Core, the curriculum standards that specify what is taught in grade-school classrooms across the state.Walker's office issued a one-line statement late in the afternoon, four days after he and other Republican governors criticized Common Core during a meeting of the National Governors Association."Today, I call on the members of the state Legislature to pass a bill in early January to repeal Common Core and replace it with standards set by people in Wisconsin," Walker's statement said in its entirety.Common Core is a set of English and math standards that spell out what students should know and when. The standards for elementary math have confounded some parents by departing from some traditional methods to emphasize that students understand how numbers relate to each other.Other critics have complained that the standards rely too heavily on student test scores, which in turn are used to evaluate teacher performance."My problem with Common Core is, I don't want people outside Wisconsin telling us what our standards should be," Walker said Sunday at the governors' conference.Walker told WISN 12 News he doesn't believe the cost to switch would be significant."Even if it means somewhat of a delay, so be it. I'd rather have it done right than have something done by outsiders that doesn't fit the needs of the people here in Wisconsin," Walker said. Walker, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, joins other prominent Republicans who have called for the standards to be spiked. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was first to sign legislation revoking Common Core in April, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal signed executive orders blocking tests tied to the standards.Joe Zepecki, a spokesman for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, questioned Walker's motives for issuing the call at a time when the Legislature isn't even in session. Zepecki called the move a "desperate" effort to shore up Walker's right-wing base."He offers zero explanation for why (he) wants to undermine efforts to improve our educational standards from 38th in the country and zero plan for moving forward," Zepecki said in an email. "Why the sudden change of course after three years of DPI (the state Department of Public Instruction) working on implementing these standards?"The standards were adopted by state superintendent Tony Evers in 2010. State tests will be geared toward the standards starting next school year.“The notion that Wisconsin could simply repeal our standards or take a two year time out on our assessments not only runs counter to both state and federal law, it jeopardizes important reforms like educator effectiveness and school and district accountability," Evers said in a written statement Friday. But most importantly, it brings chaos to our children and our classrooms."Conservative state lawmakers had tried to repeal the standards, which they said are weak and take away local control, but their bill failed even though Republicans control the Legislature. Walker said at the time he wanted to see Wisconsin pass tougher standards, but powerful Republican lawmakers including Sen. Luther Olsen and Rep. Steve Kestell spearheaded bipartisan coalitions that killed the bill.Democrats including Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca and state Rep. Sondy Pope accused Walker on Thursday of politicizing education to cater to extreme political viewpoints."It will be nearly impossible and extremely expensive to create all new standards and assessments within the next few years," said Pope, a staunch defender of the standards and member of the Assembly Education Committee. "This is extremely short-sighted and I believe is being done to throw public education into further disarray."The Wisconsin Association of School Boards also worried that the time and money spent revising school curricula to meet the new standards will have been wasted if Common Core is repealed."The idea behind the Common Core State Standards was to try to make the academic standards used from state to state uniformly more rigorous," the nonprofit group said in a statement. "There is widespread consensus that the Common Core State Standards are more rigorous than the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards they replaced."But Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling said it was time to end Common Core, "and develop new standards that challenge and prepare our students for the real world of work."