Members of the House Sub-Committee on Common Core Standards were announced.
The House Education Subcommittee on Common Core Standards will be chaired by Saginaw Township Republican Tim Kelly.
Legislators on the panel include vice-chair Rep. Amanda Price (R-Park Township); Rep. Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills); Rep. Dave Pagel (R-Oronoko Township); Rep. Margaret O’Brien (R-Portage); Rep. Bill Rogers (R-Brighton); Rep. Ken Yonker (R-Caledonia); Rep. Rob VerHeulen (R-Walker); minority vice-chair Rep. Sam Singh (D-East Lansing); Rep. Andy Schor (D-Lansing); Rep. David Knezek (D-Dearborn Heights); Rep. Ellen Cogen Lipton (D-Huntington Woods); and Rep. Adam Zemke (D-Ann Arbor).
The panel is expected to begin meeting in July, while the full legislature is expected to return from vacation in August.
The Common Core Standards were adopted by the Michigan Department of Education in 2010. This past legislative session, the Michigan legislature passed a budget and signed by Governor Snyder that blocked funding for implementation of the standards and assessments until authorized by the lawmakers. The new budget will take effect Oct, 1, 2013. A vote is likely this fall to determine whether the fate of the standards.
Stop Common Core in Michigan appreciates every parent, teacher, and citizen who has helped get us this far. The fight is not over. With your continued support we can and will permanently defeat Common Core in Michigan. Please continue to call and inform lawmakers on this committee and in your district. Let them know you want to see Common Core permanently defeated and allow Michigan lawmakers to retain control of Michigan standards.
There will be regional meetings around the state. Get informed and be prepared this summer to give testimony at one of the meetings and maybe in Lansing too — and begin organizing others to attend the hearings.
Writing letters to the editor is another help inform Michigan residents in your area about Common Core. Here’s an excellent Letter to the Editor from The Midland Daily News.
Posted: Friday, June 21, 2013 11:30 am
To the editor:
Concerning Superintendent Carl Ellinger’s comments about educational Common Core standards, parents, teachers and citizens need to become informed on the issue.
As he stated, the House actions put an end to three years of planning, yet how many parents out there are even aware of what Common Core is and what it will do to our education system? You would think that after three years of planning most would be aware of the huge changes they propose.
Common Core is a classic example of yet another massive overreach by the federal government at the expense of state and local control. It is an untested program, will cost untold billions of dollars to implement, destroy school choice for parents, seek to undermine home schooling and, as we know all to well, it is almost impossible to correct mistakes and problems in huge federal programs once they are implemented.
I heard nothing but complaints about “No Child Left Behind” from teachers and most all agree it was a failed program. Now with Common Core we will double down on these “teach for the test” methods. We have governors (including Rick Snyder) trying to implement Common Core in return for the carrot of “free” federal money and waivers from the penalties of failing to reach No Child Left Bend standards.
Let’s face it, there is no “one size fits all” solution for your child’s education. Local school boards, teachers and most of all parents know what is best for their children’s education. If we need to improve or change school curriculum and standards then the superintendent, school board, teachers and parents should tackle the problem not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.
If the superintendent is so anxious to hand over all these responsibilities to someone in Washington I question the need for his services. We could dump his job and salary and defer to the new U.S. Superintendent of Schools. The myriad of problems associated with Common Core standards are too numerous to discuss here. I encourage all, especially our legislators, parents, teachers and the new superintendent to become more informed on the issue before we jump off the Common Core cliff. Thankfully, this is exactly what our legislators here in Michigan have decided to do.
Thomas Biggs
Manistee