House passes anti-Common Core bill by 132-19 vote

(In this newsletter issued today, Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-St. Charles, an opponent of Common Core Standards, writes about the House's decision to pass HB 1490, which moves the state away from Common Core and about his eight reasons to oppose Common Core.)

Today the MO House passed HB 1490 by a vote of 132 to 19. This was my bill to move MO away form the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While it was originally written to simply say the state of MO was not going to use Common Core standards it was amended on the House Floor to create the process for determining what standards we will use. The new language which is similar to Senate Bill 514 creates a process for MO educators with involvement and input from parents to create new standards for our state, our schools and our students. MO will be able to modify these standards and not just 15% that CCSS allowed us to add. Also, the assessments to these standards will be written and controlled by the State Board of Education and not a private organization out side of our state. While MO will use Common Core standards this up coming school year the process we create will allow us to move beyond these standards and assessments to MO standards and tests as it should be.

Below are my introductory remarks on the House Floor concerning Common Core when the bill was debated and amended.

HB 1490 ends Common Core in the State of Missouri. Proponents have sold common core as more rigorous standards for our children and anyone who opposes it opposes better education. This is a false choice that seeks to eliminate honest debate on a contentious issue. For the last three years I have filed legislation to stop common core in our state. As a result I have refined my reasons to 8 points.

Before I go over my 8 reasons for opposing common Core I want to give you my thoughts of the name Common Core State Standards. We all know that what you name a bill, initiative or program sets the debate around it.

COMMON
The better way of saying this is universal. This is a “Single Point of Failure” not just for the kids in our state, but every state in the union. If these new, untested and unproven standards don’t improve education the way they claim then it won’t be just our kids who suffer but students throughout the nation.

CORE
These standards are the new foundation of our educational system. These standards are the basis for the assessments that evaluate them, our students, teachers and schools. The curriculum will fall in line with these standards to ensure that the test results are positive. While it is true that Common Core isn’t curriculum this is a distinction without a difference.

STATE
This is the biggest lie in the name. Not only do we lose local control we lose state control of our educational standards. MO cannot change the standards. They are copy righted by a private organization that will profit from our tax dollars as we pay to use them. We cannot change the test questions whether to make them harder or easier; to change objectionable questions; or to make them more appropriate for our state’s demographics.

STANDARDS
The connotation is a floor of knowledge that can be built upon by schools as they see fit. In reality the 15% deviance allowed to states will not be added to the assessments so what teacher is going to waste time teaching it and what student is going to waste time learning it. These standards will be the basis of what our children learn and more importantly don’t learn.

Mr. Speaker my 8 Reasons for opposing CCSS are:

Process – Gov Nixon and Dr. Nicastro went around the General Assembly to implement this upon the state with the advice or consent of the policy making branch of government.
States’ Rights – we do not control the standards our students are held to or the tests they are evaluated by.
Cost –
The new tests are going to cost twice what we are currently paying and local districts are going to be picking up a bigger portion of the bill.
The cost to local districts for the wi-fi, servers, computers, computer labs etc are unknown. DESE will not pick up these costs so the local districts will have to making this an unfunded mandate.
MO will have to pay a fee of $4.3M to the private organization Smarter Balance to have access to these standards and tests.
We are the “Show-me” state – these standards are untested and unproven. We don’t know if they will improve the education. The wiser course of action would be to know what we are getting into before we sign up our children for this experimental system.
Developmentally inappropriate – There are many child psychologists who say these “rigorous” standards are not appropriate for young children. The standards exceed normal child developmental abilities.
Stress – the increased emphasis on these new standards and tests are putting stress on our children and schools. Increased # of students in NY are starting to injure themselves because of the stress of these tests. In TN a school is putting students in detention for not doing well on pretests so students will have extra time to study for the tests.
Data – one of the biggest concerns I have heard inside this building is student data. There are concerns that student identifiable data can be determined even if it is masked. There are also concerns that the Smarter Balance consortium will share data with the Dept of Education who will in turn share this data with the Dept of Labor. There is also concern that the 2011 changes to FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) will allow more people access to student data. The easiest way to protect this data is to not share it.
Decreased results for several years - DESE is fully aware that our state test scores will decrease for the next several years. If we tie students grades to these test results we will be damaging all current high school students ability to get scholarships for college. Also, we could put provisionally accredited schools in jeopardy to plunge into unaccredited status.