The state Senate Education Committee
scrapped the House of Delegates’ plan Monday to repeal the controversial Common
Core education standards in West
Virginia
The committee replaced language in the
House-passed bill (HB2934) with its own language that calls for keeping Common
Core in place while doing up to a two-year study of the concerns with public
hearings to be hosted by the state Department of Education.
Common Core creates uniform standards
for achievement but has been criticized as federalizing education. Critics have
said there’s been confusion about the curriculum used to teach to the
standards. The House bill called for the repeal of Common Core this coming
July.
“We believe that would have been
absolutely disastrous for our education system,” Senate Education Committee
Chairman Dave Sypolt (R-Preston) told his committee Monday. “Although I will be
the first to admit I believe we need to take a good, hard look at our standards
and how we are assessing our children.”
The new language allows the state
superintendent of schools and a newly-formed committee to look at the Common
Core standards, take them out to the public and in Sypolt’s words “allow people
to have their concerns addressed.” The committee would then come back to the
legislature with recommendations on how the state should move forward. Common
Core would be repealed if the legislature takes no action during the two-year
period.
The change came after negotiations
between Senate leaders and education officials including state School Superintendent
Dr. Michael Martirano.
“It’s to engage in a very thoughtful
review process. I want to make certain we are doing it right, make certain we
understand what is the problem with those standards and then adopt firmly our
very clear West Virginia
The superintendent has supported the
current standards but believes the state Department of Education should have
done a better job with communication during the implementation of the
standards, something that happened before he was hired last year.
“There are a lot of concerns that are
unfounded. This is an opportunity to allow calmer minds to prevail and to be
very clear what our standards are and what they aren’t,” Martirano said.
The House may not be willing to give up
its position. The bill could be headed for a conference committee before this
week’s final week of the legislative session expires Saturday night. House
Speaker Tim Armstead said the House wants the standards to be redeveloped.
“There’s a lot of concern that we not
continue to forge ahead on these standards that have given many, many House
members and others, teachers and parents, concern about where we are in terms
of Common Core,” Armstead said.
The bill next goes to the Senate
Finance Committee.
