North Carolina Legislative Report- April 18, 2013

CCTA Watchdog Report North Carolina Legislative Report- April 18, 2013

This will be a single-issue State Watchdog Subcommittee report. Many of us are very worried about Common Core. We are getting conflicting information, and much of it sounds horrible. How do we separate fact from fiction? If what we suspect to be true is, how do we stop it?

I spent some time on the North Carolina General Assembly website this afternoon, then emailed Representative Michael Speciale. Michael called a short while later, and we talked. I want to tell you about it.

Michael is one of the four primary sponsors of House Bill 733 with the short title, Common Core Standards Study. (You can read it by going to www.ncga.state.nc.us, putting in the bill number and pressing, "Go." It's less than three pages long and is very easy to read.)

In summary, it establishes a committee to study the Common Core State Standards and sets out 25 things to be studied and answered about them. Some of the things to be checked into include cost, expected results (including evidence that the use of a common or national curriculum in other countries directly leads to high academic achievement), public school student data collection and dissemination and access, plus what impact there will be on charter and other schools.

The study committee is to make interim reports to the General Assembly when they convene in 2014 and 2015, and a final report when they convene in 2016.

The bill was referred to the House Committee on Education on April 11th.

As you can imagine, I had a bunch of questions which I sent to Michael in an email. Shortly thereafter, he called. Bless him.

Michael is confident the bill will come out of the Education Committee and be sent to the House floor for a vote. He is also confident that it will get passed this session.

Michael acknowledges that many other states are making moves to pull out of Common Core, but he believes there is too much mis-information both pro and con to take that route. He believes the appropriate approach is to weed out fact from fiction, find out what actual policy is, what the documentation says, etc.

As Michael says, "Facts don't lie." When we have them, the appropriate action will be hard to deny. We'll go forward, or we'll reverse course. He believes the study committee may develop enough documented information prior to their deadline so that a decision can be made prior to 2016.

Frankly, all my instincts are telling me that Common Core Standards are a disaster, but I do understand that there is a raging controversy, and it's difficult to ascertain that the "facts" one has are indeed true, so the approach Michael is taking is logical. It also has the advantage that, if my instincts turn out to be correct, people whose instincts are telling them the exact opposite will be hard pressed to mount a logical campaign against withdrawing if strongly researched facts show Common Core to be harmful. We need to be patient and let this play itself out in a sensible fashion.

In the meantime, it's probably a good idea for us to learn as much as we can about Common Core. What is it exactly? Who developed it? What degree of input did the States actually have? What part has the U.S. Department of Education played (a department that needs to be abolished because the Constitution does not give the federal government any responsibilities for education)? What is the extent of the data that will be gathered about students and their families, and what will be done with it? Why is this data to be gathered?

Sincerely,
Raynor James
CCTA State Watchdog