Legislator to Nicastro, DESE: Screw with us on Common Core and we'll cut your funding

I had a conversation with Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webb City, after an informational meeting about Common Core Standards held in the East Newton High School gymnasium this summer and heard for the first time something that I have heard quite often since- Missouri legislators were left completely in the dark when it came to Common Core.

A bill was filed last year that would have required hearings to be held in each of Missouri's Congressional districts, but that fell short during the final week of the session, primarily because the issue was not yet on most legislators' radar.

Following public hearings this summer, Missouri legislators are fully aware of what Common Core is and how their role in the process has been completely circumvented by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), with the help of many of the state's superintendents.

I might add that in addition to the legislature being kept in the dark, the same thing has happened to local school boards. Some prefer to be left in the dark; others, including the East Newton R-6 Board of Education have taken it up on themselves to find out exactly what Common Core Standards is all about and they have not been happy with what they are hearing.

Rep Bill Lant, R-Joplin, addressed the topic during his latest report:

My major objection is that, much like the Affordable Care Act, we can't get accurate information about the darned thing. The House and Senate Interim Committees spent all summer trying to get the Department of Education to testify, but the Secretary of Education still refuses to answer questions about the content and future plans for changes and additions to the curriculum. Statements from the department like "you're going to get it whether you like it or not" have the effect of aggravating the Senate who can very effectively control DESE's budget.

Personally, I like the idea of local control of curriculum. Our elected school boards, working within the limits set by the State Legislature is the way the education was intended by the framers, not adhering to a set of standards set by a group of governors in order to capture more stimulus money.

When Lant referred to the Senate, he may have been talking about the statements made by Sen.Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, in Neosho recently, when he criticized DESE's implementation of Common Core with federal dollars, bypassing the state process.

"We will not fund anything until we know what it is," Schaefer said.