House Speaker Tim Jones today joined Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, Senator Ed Emery, and Rep. Kurt Bahr in releasing the following joint statement regarding the Education Workgroups:
"HB1490 was designed to vest in the education work groups the power to shape recommendations for academic standards absent influence from bureaucrats and politicians. No entity has the power to influence the affairs of each group, whether our respective offices or DESE. Under the law, after DESE convened the initial meeting, the power shifts to the groups alone to guide themselves each month with the goal of delivering their best academic standards recommendations by October 1, 2015. There exists no authority in the statute for DESE to dictate the deliberations of these work groups, nor even to guide their deliberations after the initial organizing meetings held yesterday, unless invited to do so by individual work groups."
In addition, House Speaker Jones made the following individual comments regarding the workgroups:
“Our goal with the workgroups is to vest decision making authority in Missouri parents and teachers who have the best interests of our young people at heart. The people of this state have made it absolutely clear they oppose the Common Core standards and that they want Missouri citizens and educators, not government bureaucrats, making the decisions that will impact the educational future of our children. My hope is that DESE will respect the intent of the legislation we passed and the well-known position of the people to allow the workgroups to do their work free from external bureaucratic influences.”
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