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North Carolina Common Core 'Deal' in the Works

North Carolina Common Core 'Deal' in the Works

Though North Carolina House and Senate negotiators say they have reached an agreement on a bill to repeal the Common Core standards in their state, the measure could replace Common Core with parts of the same controversial standards, wral.com says.

Last Wednesday, negotiators from both chambers of the North Carolina legislature said they reached a deal on Senate Bill 812.

“It repeals and replaces the Common Core,” Sen. Jerry Tillman (R) said, but added that the legislation would allow state education officials to take part of the Common Core standards and insert them into the new state standards.

Both the North Carolina House and Senate drafted repeal bills that would have created an Academic Standards Review Commission to review the standards that K-12 students must meet. Recommendations from the commission would then be sent to the State Board of Education for adoption.

However, as wral.com reports, only the state House version of the repeal bill would have prohibited the new commission’s insertion of any of the Common Core standards into the new set of standards. The state Senate version, on the contrary, allowed the new commission to use parts of the Common Core, an aspect that received support from the state’s business lobbying groups.

“They can take part of it, but they cannot take it in its entirety,” said state Rep. Bryan Holloway (R) of the measure.

Tillman, however, said the commission has the freedom to look at whatever “they deem as rigorous and appropriate” for North Carolina.

“They might take a standard or two or whatever from the Common Core, but they’re not bound to do that,” he added.

Once the conference committee report is formally filed in the House and Senate, and both chambers vote to approve it, the bill would go to Gov. Pat McCrory (R) who has been skeptical of repeal of the Common Core standards.

Grassroots parents’ groups who have been fighting Common Core in the states have been highly critical of elected officials who have “repealed” the nationalized standards but then “replaced” them with what amounts to a “rebrand,” or renaming, of the Common Core with another more local-flavor name.

In Indiana, for example, Gov. Mike Pence (R) boasted in April that his state was the first to “repeal” the Common Core standards, but he ultimately facilitated the approval of a “rebrand” of the same controversial standards. Grassroots group Hoosiers Against Common Core opposed the rebrand as did advisers Pence sought out on both sides of the debate who said the new standards are strikingly similar to Common Core and, in some cases, even inferior.

Gov. Mary Fallin (R) of Oklahoma signed a bill last month that repealed the Common Core standards in her state and replaced them with new standards to be developed by Oklahoma. The law states that the new standards must be proven to be sufficiently unlike the Common Core standards.

In addition, Oklahoma will revert to its former PASS standards until the new standards are developed.

“Unfortunately, federal overreach has tainted Common Core. President Obama and Washington bureaucrats have usurped Common Core in an attempt to influence state education standards,” Fallin said upon signing the measure. “The results are predictable. What should have been a bipartisan policy is now widely regarded as the president’s plan to establish federal control of curricula, testing and teaching strategies.”

It remains to be seen whether McCrory signs off on a Common Core repeal bill that could realistically still leave North Carolina with at least parts of the Common Core standards. The fact that the state Senate adjusted its repeal bill with the support of business lobbyists underscores the power of the pro-Common Core U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its local business affiliates on politicians.


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