A bill to repeal Common Core education standards in Ohio passed a House committee yesterday -- but there is doubt about whether it has the momentum to go further.
The bill is opposed by all major public-education associations, universities, some conservative-leaning education policy-research groups, and business groups such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Gov. John Kasich supports Common Core, and the leaders of the House and Senate education committees also oppose the bill.
Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, the No. 2 House leader and a prime sponsor of the bill, said it would get a full House vote if leaders are certain they have 50 votes to pass it -- a certainty they do not have right now. He said the standards did not get a proper vetting when Ohio adopted them in 2010 and began working toward full implementation this year.
The bill would eliminate math and English/language-arts standards for grades K-12 and replace them for three years with standards from Massachusetts that were in place before that state adopted Common Core. New state standards would be put in place by the 2018-19 school year.
"Let's examine this like we should have done four years ago, and in the meantime put in place temporary standards," he said.
Huffman also said business groups that support the standards have been fed misinformation.
Kasich, who easily won re-election on Tuesday, has said he does not expect the Common Core bill to ever reach his desk.
The standards were adopted by Ohio and more than 40 other states in 2010 after they were developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers as a way to boost college and career readiness among U.S. students
Opponents say the standards stifle local control and teacher creativity. Ohioans Against Common Core continues to pressure lawmakers and Kasich to pass the bill, asking them to "put an end to the federal and corporate experiment within Ohio," said Heidi Huber, leader of the group.
Other groups, including the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute, expressed disappointment in the vote. Chad Aldis of Fordham said the bill "promises to unleash chaos on every school and district in the state."
Rep. Gerald Stebelton, R-Lancaster, the chairman of the House Education Committee and a Common Core supporter, said he remains confident that the House does not have the votes to pass the bill.
"The people that testified against the Common Core standards don't know what they're talking about," he said. "There is nothing in the standards I wouldn't want my children to be measured by. Now, testing is another issue. We're going down a path we haven't been down before."
Stebelton's committee yesterday took up a bill that would limit total time for each assessment to four hours per year.
Rep. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, who is sponsoring the testing bill with Rep. Anne Gonzales, R-Westerville, said there is a lot of passion behind the Common Core bill, but he doesn't think it's going to pass.
"We have to do something on testing, and I want something to make sure we can get something that's passed and signed into law by the governor," he said.
Lawmakers want to give schools flexibility, he said, "yet have the conversation about what is the right amount of data we need to have the state properly assess schools and teachers."
Teachers, school officials and parents across the state have raised various concerns about the amount of testing required of students -- and some complaints relate to testing in conjunction with Common Core.
Gonzales said she introduced the four-hour limit after hearing from officials in the Westerville school district. Hilliard Superintendent John Marschhausen made over-testing a key point during his recent State of the Schools address.
Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Albany, said she is hearing concerns about the kindergarten assessments because they take two hours per student to administer and another hour for a teacher to input the data.
"That's a lot of classroom time lost at the beginning of the year for kids who should be excited about being in school," she said, adding that while the test is well-intentioned, "I don't know that it serves any educational purpose."
The bill would allow districts to give the kindergarten test within the two weeks before school.
Stebelton said the state should look at whether tests can be streamlined or reduced, but he doesn't want to just toss them out. The idea is to find the right balance between too much testing and not enough accountability.
"Eventually we'll get it right," he said.
(c)2014 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)
