Did you know that legislation from the North Carolina Common Core Study Committee will not be heard this year if the committee continues their pattern of meeting only every 2 months? Per Committee Rule 7B, the deadline for submitting a piece of legislation for NCGA consideration is April 25; if the committee fails to do so, they will have effectively kicked the can down the road, preventing legislators from having to address Common Core anytime this year.
If the NCGA takes years to determine what you and I already know about Common Core, what happens to the children of North Carolina in the meantime? They will have been used as guinea pigs, with years of their education wasted.
A recent Pundit House article outlines the undesirable aspects of the Common Core standards and their detrimental impact on education in North Carolina. I ask that Common Core opponents continue to send this information to legislators; however, it seems that no matter how much information is provided to the committee members, some members continue to give excuses for their failure to denounce and repeal Common Core from the NC General Statutes.
The legislators have said: If we get rid of Common Core©, what will we replace it with?
We say: There is no need to have another set of standards on hand in order to remove “Common Core©” from North Carolina’s general statutes because we have never had a copyrighted© learning standard named within our general statutes prior to Common Core©. Removing the standards from NC general statutes is the first step, so that local boards, as well as the State Board of Education, may become free to research & adopt standards other than Common Core©.
The legislators have said: We don’t yet know if we will be required to pay back millions of dollars in Race to the Top funds that were accepted from the federal government for the implementation of Common Core.
We say: What amount of money makes it ethical to sell out the education and livelihood of North Carolina children? A September, 2013 research paper from the John Locke Foundation states that North Carolina will likely spend $575 million over the next 7 years implementing Common Core (page 4 of this paper). It is a better deal for the NCGA to send the money back to Obama and rid ourselves of the federal agenda altogether than for NC taxpayers to keep pouring even more money into the implementation of Common Core.
The legislators have said: National standards are beneficial in that they will provide a seamless transition for students who move across state lines during their education years.
We say: Should we sacrifice the education of every North Carolina public school student in an attempt to accommodate what data shows will affect 1.7% of students? Wouldn’t it be easier to accommodate transfer students with a little extra attention that to uproot our entire system of education?
The legislators have said: Curriculum is a completely separate issue from Common Core Standards, since North Carolina’s local education boards choose their own curriculum.
We say: Most local education districts in North Carolina refuse to opt out of the State Board of Education’s suggested Common Core-approved curriculum because they are still mandated per the general statutes to administer the Common Core end-of-course tests. Fix your mistake immediately so that our local boards may exercise their autonomy over curriculum decisions.
There you have it – no more excuses! Any legislator who sits on the Common Core Study Committee but does not immediately denounce Common Core and work to reverse their mistake is an enabler, and therefore a proponent, of Common Core. Filing for government office begins this month. Below is a list of legislators who sit on the Common Core Study Committee, yet voted to place Common Core into NC general statutes and have not to date fully denounced the standards as well as taken action to fix their mistake by bringing forward legislation for the repeal of Common Core. Their actions (and inaction) demonstrate their support of Common Core, and all such individuals need to be primaried over their destructive education policies.
Note that the chairmen of the Common Core Study Committee are especially influential in whether or not legislation is heard this year, as they are responsible for setting the meeting dates per rule 3. If the committee chairmen continue to schedule the meetings 2 months apart from eachother, it will not be possible for the committee to propose the necessary Common Core repeal legislation to the NCGA by the cut-off date for a hearing this year. Here is the list of Common Core Study Committee members who voted to solidify Common Core into NC General Statutes, and to date have not responded to requests that they take substantial action to fix their mistake:
Sen. Dan Soucek (Chair of Study Committee & Primary Sponsor of the bill which forced the continuation of Common Core in NC)
Rep. Bryan R. Holloway (Chair)
Rep. Tricia Ann Cotham
Rep. D. Craig Horn
Sen. Warren Daniel
Sen. Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr.
Sen. E. S. (Buck) Newton
Sen. Jerry W. Tillman
Rep. Tim Moore
Sen. Tom Apodaca
Reference: http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2011&BillID=S479
