Our study committee on Common Core held our final meeting today. After
some spirited debate, we voted 9-3 to approve a report including a bill
to begin to remove Common Core from the public education system in North
Carolina and replace it with North Carolina
standards.
The bill, authored by Sen. Jerry Tillman, bears the short title:
"AN
ACT TO REPLACE THE COMMON CORE BY EXERCISING NORTH CAROLINA'S PROPER
CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY OVER ALL ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND TO ENSURE THAT
STANDARDS ARE ROBUST AND APPROPRIATE, AND THAT
THEY ENABLE STUDENTS TO SUCCEED ACADEMICALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY, AS
RECOMMENDED BY THE LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH COMMISSION STUDY COMMITTEE ON
THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS."
(I know... that doesn't look like a "short" title. Believe me, it is, compared
to some short titles of bills we consider in the Legislature.)
This bill removes Common Core from our State Statutes and creates a new
Academic Standards Review Commission. This Commission will only have
one member of the House and one member of the Senate as Chairs, and will
also include the Lt. Governor or a designee,
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, six members appointed by the
Speaker of the House, six members appointed by the President Pro Tempore
of the Senate, two members of the State Board of Education, and one
member appointed by the Governor. The Speaker
and the President Pro Tempore, in appointing their respective six
members, "shall consider, but {are} not limited to appointing
representatives from the following groups in these appointments: parents
of students enrolled in the public schools; Mathematics
and English Language Arts teachers; and Mathematics and English
Language Arts curriculum experts."
The purpose of this Commission will be to:
·
review academic standards adopted by the State Board of Education,
·
recommend to that Board changes and modifications to these standards,
·
review the proposed changes to academic standards submitted by the Board to the Commission,
·
recommend to the Board assessments aligned
to proposed changes and modification that would also reduce the number
of assessments administered to public schools, and
·
consider the impact on educators, including the need for professional development, when making any such recommendations.
The Commission will be required to assemble content experts to assist in
evaluating the rigor of academic standards and involve interested
stakeholders in this process while keeping the process transparent.
In this process, the Commission may contract for professional, clerical,
and consultant services, and may also contract with an individual who
has an excellent national reputation in the area of school standards and
assessments to facilitate the work of the
Commission. I have my own ideas about who that individual should be.
We'll see how that goes.
The first meeting of this Commission must be no later than September 1, 2014. I hope it will be much sooner than that. The Commission's final report is due by May, 2016. The Commission terminates on December 31, 2015,
or upon the filing of its final report,
whichever occurs first. Sen. Tillman, the author of this bill, was
successful in adding an amendment which allows the Commission to make
recommendations to the State Board of Education from the time the
Commission begins to meet, and whenever they see the
need along the way. That way, changes that need to be made will not
have to wait until the final report of the Commission is submitted. The
Commission is only an Advisory Commission; but it should carry a lot of
weight, even if the State Board of Education
is resistant.
Of course, this bill still must be considered by the full Legislature before it becomes law effective July 1, 2014.
If enacted, it will mean the removal of Common Core from our statutes
immediately on that day. I expect there will be an effort to move the
final report date either to January, 2015 or at least to May, 2015. In
addition, I proposed an amendment to prohibit the State Board of
Education from applying for or accepting any federal grant that requires
adoption of specific academic standards, assessments,
or curricular goals and materials that deviate from the statutory
requirements established by North Carolina. The chairs of our committee
agreed with this amendment in principle, but wanted me to work with
them to fine tune the wording so that it does not
cause constitutional difficulties. So I expect to be working with Rep.
Holloway, Sen. Soucek, and Rep. Speciale to get the bill with that
provision ready for a vote during the short session. What my proposed
amendment means is that we will no longer allow
the State Board of Education to accept unconstitutional federal
interference in North Carolina public education.
I am very pleased with today's results, and look forward to completing
this effort to finish off Common Core in North Carolina. I hope many
other States will soon follow our lead.
God bless
Representative Larry G. Pittman
North Carolina General Assembly
House of Representatives
1321 Legislative Building
16 W. Jones Street
Raleigh, NC 27601-1096
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