New York State legislators are urging state education department and Board of Regents leaders to delay implementing controversial Common Core standards while Long Island lawmakers push a bill to do just that.
State Senate co-leaders Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) as well as Assembly Speak Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) all released statements Tuesday calling for a delaying the widely criticized rollout of the new tests and curricula. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Albany should wait for his panel reviewing the issue to release its recommendations—an idea that did not sit well with some.
“I believe that a panel of so-called experts will not know more than thousands of parents, teachers, and students who already know that implementation of Common Core must be delayed,” State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) told the Press.
How long it should be delayed depends upon the lawmaker. Boyle said he is drafting legislation that would delay Common Core for three years, while Silver and Skelos said should be delayed at least two years.
Long Island Parents & Teachers Revolt Against Common Core
The state Senate leaders are also calling for a delay in the operation of the Education Data Portal for one year, citing concerns about “the ability of unauthorized third-parties to access personally identifiable information of students, teachers, and principals.”
They maintain that they support an “improved education curriculum that increases standards,” but that the implementation, as it now stands, “has been poorly executed.”
The state legislators, conscious of the bottom line, stopped short of calling for a full repeal of Common Core.
In a letter to constituents, Boyle conceded that “a complete repeal of Common Core [would be] impractical, as it would cost our New York schools literally billions in dollars in education aid.”
Melissa Derosa, the communications director for Cuomo, issued a statement in reaction to calls from the legislature for a Common Core moratorium, expressing support for the overall program while agreeing that the rollout is flawed.
“The Governor announced that he will assemble a panel that includes education experts and members of the legislature to identify flaws in Common Core’s rollout and take corrective action by the end of this session,” she said. “It would be premature to consider any moratorium before the panel is allowed to do its work.”
