The Senate today approved House Bill 3399, which repeals Common Core, and the State Chamber isn’t happy about it.
State Chamber Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Gwendolyn Caldwell said, “The State Chamber supports Common Core State Standards because our members – job creators in the business community – need an educated workforce that can compete in today’s high-tech, global marketplace. Common Core puts high school students on track for college or a career while House Bill 3399 sets back the cause of rigorous standards in Oklahoma.”
From the Tulsa World:
House Bill 3399 by House Speaker Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview, and Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, passed by a vote of 37-10. The House could move to accept Senate changes or reject them, sending the measure to a conference committee.
The measure calls for the State Board of Education, chaired by State Superintendent Janet Barresi, to develop Oklahoma standards. Barresi in the past has supported Common Core.
Oklahoma adopted the Common Core standards in 2010. It was among 45 states to do so.
Common Core outlines what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade level. The initiative was developed by the National Governors Association, which Gov. Mary Fallin serves as chair.
Critics say the standards remove local control and would result in additional testing. They also fear it is a national plan for education. Supporters, however, say it is needed to ensure consistency across the country and boost students’ knowledge. They say the initiative was generated by the states, not the federal government.
Hurray! Oklahoma has made an ‘educated’ decision!
Education serves to allow people to better themselves, be self-sufficient, and provide for family and community stability. We need to be able to ‘hit the ground running’, when we leave the hallowed halls.
As students get out into the ‘work world’ – no matter what the career choice, they will be expected to get a problem or a project solved – correctly, and with a quick turn-around. Time is money.
This mishmash of juggling and boggling in “common core” will never get them out of school. Let alone help to land them a job.
Thank you Senators for doing what the voters (parents, teachers, grandparents, and concerned citizens) have been asking for…. rejecting Common Core (Obama Core) and setting Oklahoma Standards. It’s time for Mary and Janet to face the facts! Common Core is the federal government’s grab of all education.
As for the Chamber of Commerce – maybe the dues’ paying members should recognize their dues are being used against their values. Stop paying the chamber any dues…. and teachers need to quit paying dues to the teachers’ union. Stop their funding since these groups do not value your opinion or beliefs.
” Common Core is the federal government’s grab of all education.” Or, another nail in the coffin of individual liberty and responsibility.
My first that when the Chamber says businesses need trained workers? Train them yourselves!
As a former high school teacher and as a parent whose children attended several schools across the state, I have observed that school systems (not necessarily individual teachers) tend to teach to one of two levels: (1) preparatory to college entrance or (2) capability to qualify for 80% of the jobs in the area.
When businesses and parents within a school system demand greater standards, they will become the norm!!!
To the Chamber I offer this: as they say in Russia, “tough shitzky!”
Things like this are the reason I no longer belong to the Chamber of Commerce. Their interests are purely selfish.