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Kansas Senate passes school finance bill stripping funding for Common Core standards
[KANSAS] TOPEKA -- The Senate voted to halt state spending on Common Core on Thursday night, during debate over a court-ordered fix for funding inequities between school districts.If you haven't been watching, Common Core's yet another experiment in pedagogy. It went on to pass a school finance bill that provides more money for local option budgets if voters approve, grants tax credits to parents who have their children in private school or home school, allows tax breaks for corporations that provide scholarships for private schools and removes administrative due process for public school teachers. I went to help my granddaughter with her math a few weeks ago. I do arithmetic in my head and usually come out with the right answer. What they're pushing isn't arithmetic. Senators gave the bill final passage 23-17 a little after 1:30 a.m. Friday. Good riddance. The House will consider its own school finance bill Friday after its budget committee restored cuts to virtual schools, transportation and at-risk funds late Thursday. Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, introduced an amendment early in the Senate debate to halt state money for the implementation of Common Core, a set of national performance standards adopted by the Kansas Board of Education in 2010 without the Legislature's approval. It passed, 27-12. Knox and many others said this would help free up funding to address inequities, but the move caught many educational experts by surprise. Mark Tallman, front man for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said the vote causes uncertainty for districts in the midst of implementing the standards. "So what does that mean? What are we supposed to do? Because most districts have spent several years adopting curriculum, adopting textbooks that are based on the Common Core standards," Tallman said. "One Common Core standard is that essentially that first-graders have to be able to count to 100. So does this mean districts aren't supposed to teach how to count to 100, because that's a Common Core standard? Now, I don't think that's what they mean, but what do they mean?" He said the practical effect of this amendment was unclear. The Common Core initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. It has been heavily promoted by President B.O. and has benefited from incentives offered by the U.S. Department of Education, leading some people to believe it is a federal program. Posted by: Fred 2014-04-05 |
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