Recently
I gave you a rundown on the way I see the basic
politics at
play for the upcoming legislative session here in Oklahoma. Since that
time one very important thing has happened - Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon has
declared himself to be considering a run for Senator Tom Coburn's Senate seat.
This
changes things a bit. If Shannon declares himself as a candidate for the
seat, he would most probably leave his post as Speaker to campaign. If he
leaves his post as Speaker, we're not certain who would carry his bill, nor can
we be certain who the next speaker would be. There are several we have heard of that have
indicated their interest in the post (among others) and the new
Speaker's relationship with the governor may put he or she at odds with the
grassroots desire to stop Common Core.
Currently,
there are SEVEN bills
relating directly to the Common Core - 5
in the House and 2 in the Senate.
Two
are simple repeal bills that delete
the ONE PARAGRAPH in the 32 page SB2033 that made Common Core law in
Oklahoma. These are:
HB 2786 - authored by Representative Jadine
Nollan
HB2849 - authored by Representative Dan Fisher
There is no reason to think we cannot pass these bills with
sufficient enough citizen pressure. Though our main
opposition appears to come from two term limited senators - one, Clark Jolley
has higher political aspirations and the second, John Ford, has to return to
his small community of Bartlesville where a Common Core forum will occur
tomorrow night (1/28/13) that has gotten media attention from the Tulsa World
and the Pat Campbell show. For the rest
of the non-term-limited senators, we must remind them that this is an election
year for some. If we can't prompt them nicely to do as we ask, then they
needn't be re-elected. In fact, it is our
plan to push FULL FORCE FOR REPEAL.
We have heard these bills may have trouble in Committee because they provide no
'back-up' plan for standards outside the Common Core - they repeal the
standards, but put nothing in their place. In fact, we have long provided TWO OPTIONS:
1. Return to PASS until new standards - developed by
actual Oklahomans - can be created. Don't forget, the stink that helped
cause all this education 'reform' nonsense in the first place was created when
it was learned that state superintendents across the nation, including Sandy
Garrett, had lowered the cut scores on the yearly state tests (an 'A' would have been
85 and up, rather than 90 and up, for example) in order to make it easier for
kids to do well on their exams in order to satisfy the requirements of No Child
Left Behind. So was NCLB repealed? Oh no instead the feds simply
began to apply a whole new set of mandates for states through Race to the Top and
NCLB waivers to make up for the bad law! What is it that's said about
insanity?
2. Dr. Sandra Stotsky, known for her participation in writing the 2001
Massachusetts' educational standards that made MA's standards some of the very
best in the entire country (as determined via standardized testing), has
released her standards FOR FREE on line. She has made it possible for
EVERY STATE who would like to use them to use them without copyright or strings
of any kind. Why not start with the best? Oklahoma educators can
certainly add or subtract as desired, but these are FREE AND EXCELLENT as
opposed to poor and untested!
Senator Eddie Fields has authored TWO bills. One is a repeal bill that also
includes direction to the State Board of Education to remove all alignment in
the standards to the Common Core, stop Common Core assessments and require the
state board to revise their agreement with the feds that will allow Oklahoma to
get out from under the standards.
SB 1146 - authored by Senator Eddie
Fields
Fields' other bill would establish a task force the purpose of
which would be to "review curricular standards approved by the State
Board of Education and make recommendations to the Legislature
regarding new curricular standards."
SB 1310 - Establishing Curricular Standards
Task Force
Speaker of the House Shannon's bill prevents the Department of
Education from entering into any agreements with the Federal government that
would align Oklahoma standards to the Common Core - directs the OSDE to amend
any agreements with the feds so that Oklahoma may be released from using the
Common Core standards. Shannon's bill reads similarly to Fields'.
HB3331 - authored by T.W. Shannon
Representative Gus Blackwell also has a bill that repeals the
standards and then puts in place the "Local Curriculum Standards Pilot
Program" in which ANY school district could adopt their own standards
(even if they do not align with state standards) for five years. After
that time, there will be a comparison made among schools using the state
standards and those using their own local standards using standardized,
criterion-referenced tests. This is a truly LOCAL CONTROL of education
bill.
HB 3167 - authored by Representative Gus Blackwell
Representative Jason Nelson also has a bill.
This bill starts by preventing federal control over state standards.
It requires any agency using federal money or programming - including
those collecting data on students - to amend existing agreements to extricate
themselves from any agreements that would cede control over K-12 education from
outside the state. This bill would not repeal the Common Core, but instead,
puts the standards on 'pause' for a full year during which the state
assessments will reflect PASS and not CC. It directs the state board to
examine the English/LA and math standards, and then compare them with PASS in 9
different areas. A written review of the comparison must be submitted to
the House, Senate and Governor for their own review.
HB 3399 - authored by Representative Jason
Nelson
http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20INT/hB/HB3399%20INT.PDF
Though, again, we will push for repeal, this is an excellent
bill if a repeal is made completely unfeasible by Senator John Ford not hearing
repeal bills in his committee and these bills not finding another avenue for
hearing.
Now that you have bill numbers, IMMEDIATELY begin calling,
emailing and visiting your Representatives and Senators. Tell
them you expect them to vote FOR any and all of these bills (overlapping
bills are sorted out by the legislative legal staff after session ends and they
know which ones the Governor will sign) and that you will be watching for their
vote.
If you are still unaware of who those people are, please go here.
This is the link to the opening page of the Legislature. On the
bottom of that page is something that says, "Find My Legislator".
USE THAT! Type in your address information and you will be rewarded
for your time with a list including the names of your local Representative and
Senator. Once you have that - USE IT! If you can't figure out how
to navigate the website for our state legislature, watch this tutorial I made before Christmas.
As we begin session in February, begin to watch for emails from us (if you
haven't signed up for email alerts from us, you can do so on the front page of
our website in the top right hand corner) giving
you an update on where the bills are in the process and asking you to make
targeted legislative contacts.
As Lynn points out, there are NUMEROUS bills and shell bills
regarding TESTING and school code - as well as a couple of bills regarding
student privacy and data collection - one on which we are assisting
Representative David Brumbaugh.
It is going to be extraordinarily hard to keep on top of ALL
that is going on at the Capitol this year, but we MUST. In our opinion,
the federal government is completely out of control. We have the most
control over our government from our own back yard. We MUST do what we
can right outside our backdoor! We must make our state government work
for us!
