Anti-Common Core bill slated for Tuesday vote

Math and reading standards hang in the balance as lawmakers prepare to make a final decision on a bill that would eradicate Common Core in South Dakota.

After years of implementing the standards and spending millions of taxpayer dollars on training and curriculum, South Dakota schools would eventually phase out Common Core, according to a bill scheduled for a hearing Tuesday on the House of Representatives floor.

The bill was killed in the House’s education committee last week, but resurrected on the floor by lawmakers wishing to bring the measure before the larger body.

The bill allows plenty of time for schools to find a replacement before they abandon Common Core, said Mary Scheel-Buysse, co-founder of South Dakotans Against Common Core.

“We didn’t get into Common Core overnight,” Scheel-Buysse said. “We’re not going to get out of Common Core overnight.”

The bill requires the state Department of Education to end any involvement with standards by June 30, 2017.

A representative for the department raised questions about the timeline. Any new standards must go through four public hearings, all hosted by the state Board of Education. The board meets four times a year.

Work on new math and reading standards would have to begin immediately, department spokeswoman Mary Stadick Smith said.

This spring, thousands of students will take Common Core-based assessments in math and reading. State officials have spent at least $4 million on training alone during the roll out of the standards, adopted in a consortium of states, and it’s hard to say how much more local school districts have spent on curriculum and materials, Stadick Smith said.

“Standards form that backbone of that framework for what teachers do on a day to day basis in their classroom,” Stadick Smith said. “If that is gone or removed, what backbone or framework do we have then?”

Detractors say the standards take away local control, and force teachers to use developmentally inappropriate learning in class.

Common Core provides schools across the country with a systematic way to ensure students are ready for college or the workforce by the time they graduate from high school, Stadick Smith said.

“We want to make sure our students are prepared for what they’re going to face in higher education and in the world of work,” Stadick Smith said.

Despite testimony against Common Core from both parents and teachers, efforts to do away with the standards this legislative session seemed doomed. Following two hours of debate, the House Education Committee tabled House Bill 1223 by an 8-7 vote.

“It was a very close vote on a very hot political issue that I believe needs to be discussed” said Rep. Dan Kaiser, R-Aberdeen.

Kaiser, a co-sponsor, invoked a legislative rule to force a bill from committee to the floor, as long as enough lawmakers agree.

The so-called “smoke out” measure worked, meeting the one-third vote minimum.