Common Core - The Next Step

 

Wednesday January 15^th, Northern KY Representative Tom Kerr submitted a bill to basically do away with Common Core. It is HB 215. Here is a brief summary of the bill:

   AN ACT relating to public school standards.
     Create a new section to KRS Chapter 158 to prohibit the Kentucky Board of Education and the Kentucky Department of Education from implementing the English language arts and mathematics academic content standards developed by the Common Core Standards Initiative and the science academic content standards developed by the Next Generation Science Standards Initiative; require the state board to recommend new content standards to school districts and schools after consultation with the Council on Post-secondary Education; require public involvement in standards development; clarify the authority of the local board of education to adopt standards which differ from or exceed the standards approved by the state board; clarify that the school-based decision making councils shall develop policies based upon the standards adopted by the local boards of education; prohibit state officials from ceding control of education content standards and assessments; prohibit withholding of state funds from school districts for adopting different academic content standards; amend KRS 156.070 to limit disclosure of personally identifiable information; direct the Kentucky Board of Education to require that the Department of Education and all school districts adhere to transparency and privacy standards when outsourcing data and Web-based tasks to vendors; clarify vendor contract requirements; amend KRS 158.6453 to permit a local board of education to supplement the state board-approved academic content standards with higher and more rigorous standards and require school councils to use them to fulfill curriculum policy requirements; amend KRS 160.345 to clarify school council curriculum policy authority.

The bill was sent to the Education Committee which is led by Rep Derrick Graham, a former teacher and strong proponent of Common Core.

To get this bill passed,  call the Legislative Hot Line at 1-800-372-7181 and ask the operator in Frankfort to get your message to your State Representative, your Senator and ALL members of the House Education Committee to eliminate Common Core and support HB215. The operator will look up all the Legislators for you. Please make the call and have your friends and neighbors call. Call everyday if you would. Our legislators need to know that the education of our children should be under our control not the federal government. We MUST do our part to eliminate Common Core in KY.