House Ed Committee Sends Anti-Common Core Bill to Full Chamber
Rep. John Bradford, Lansing
The House Education Committee, meeting on adjournment yesterday, radically amended HB 2292 (the bill essentially banning education in Kansas) and sent the new version out for consideration by the full House.
An amendment offered by Rep. Amanda Grosserode (R-Lenexa) gutted the bill and replaced it with language repealing the current Kansas College and Career Ready Standards while replacing them with new Kansas standards adopted with no help or ideas from outside Kansas. The amendment specifically bans any federal or common core standards.
The amendment as adopted was not available in print during the meeting and the new bill is not yet posted on the legislature’s website so we are unable to fully report on its impact at this time.
Six legislators on the committee were recorded as voting NO on both the amendment and the bill. Those voting NO were Ed Trimmer (D-Winfield), Nancy Lusk (D-Overland Park), Valdenia Winn (D-Kansas City), Jarrod Ousley (D-Merriam), Sue Boldra (R-Hays), and Chuck Smith (R-Pittsburg). These six all vocally supported the State Board and the current Kansas College and Career Ready Standards throughout the meeting.
Smith told the committee that the current standards are far better than anything he experienced and that Kansas schools have produced better educated students that ever. Ousley had brought in his daughter’s textbooks to demonstrate that there was no “hokie math instruction” as asserted by Rep. John Bradford (R-Lansing).
Another very concerning part of this bill is that it gives the legislature review of what the State Board of Education does. The bill requires the SBOE to write new standards and submit those standards prior to implementation to the legislature for review. Frankly, this very act – the legislature essentially vetoing work that rightly and constitutionally belongs to the SBOE is alarming. A very bad precedent is being set with this bill.
