Missouri has taken a bold move towards fully scrapping the nationalized Common Core standards, as Gov. Nixon signed an important bill into law that strengthens local control of education.
House Bill 1490 (HB1490) was passed through both chambers of the state legislature by an overwhelming majority earlier this year. The bill includes important steps to re-establish local control of education and end involvement with Common Core in the state.
HB1490 states that “[each] local school board shall be responsible for the approval and adoption of curriculum used by the school district.” It also would sanction “work groups composed of education professionals to develop and recommend academic performance standards” which would ultimately be used to replace Common Core by the 2016-2017 school year.
“This puts the process back into the hands of the people,” Sen. Ed Emery, an HB1490 co-sponsor, said in a Kansas City Star article. “… I personally am hoping it does not get back to a model that looks like Common Core, but I do not see myself as the king of education. … We want the public involved. I think the process needs to be given a chance.”
The battle for educational freedom is not over for Missouri parents. The fight is on to ensure that the new standards being developed are more advantageous to students than the Common Core system. The delay in scrapping Common Core can either smooth the transition back to a normal curriculum or be used to create new standards that are as problematic as the ones foisted upon them previously. Still, Missouri families now have the opportunity to fight back against Common Core because of HB1490.
“The goal is to give the schools that have invested a lot of time preparing for what Governor Nixon obligated them to a graceful way out, while stopping Common Core in the long run,” Ron Calzone of Missouri First said about the new law.
Missouri is leading the resistance to Common Core, unlike other states such as Indiana, which passed a bill to “opt-out” of the Core, while implementing a state requirement to use virtually the same federal standards in order to continue receiving federal funding.
Largely unbeknownst to the American public, Common Core gives the feds the power to collect all kinds of data from children including Social Security numbers, blood type, records of school attendance, supposed learning disabilities, religious affiliation, disciplinary records, parents’ income information. The curriculum also eschews classic literature in favor of drab, government technical manuals.
HB1490 promotes decentralized government and takes control from unaccountable federal bureaucrats and puts it back into the hands of the people. Common Core’s proponents deceptively claim that the curriculum is not the handiwork of federal bureaucrats because it was conceived by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). However, the NGA has received tens of millions in taxpayer cash from the federal government over the course of many years.
TAKE ACTION
Check our Tracking and Action Center to see if your state has taken action against Common Core. If they haven’t, contact your state legislators and demand that they introduce legislation similar to HB1490. You can find your legislator’s contact information by clicking HERE.
