Another effort to dismantle Louisiana's use of the Common Core education standards has been defeated, this time by a resounding vote Thursday of the Senate Education Committee.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Another effort to dismantle Louisiana's use of the Common Core education standards has been defeated, this time by a resounding vote Thursday of the Senate Education Committee.
The panel voted 6-1 against the bill (Senate Bill 669) by Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, which would have created a state commission to develop Louisiana-specific content standards and associated testing. Only Sen. Elbert Guillory, R-Opelousas, voted to support the proposal.
The grade-by-grade benchmarks have been adopted by most states of what students should learn in English and math. They are being phased in to Louisiana's public school classrooms, with the new standardized tests set to be used in third grade through eighth grade next year.
Supporters of Common Core say the standards promote critical thinking, raise expectations for students and allow for comparison of student performance across states. Opponents say the standards are part of an inappropriate, one-size-fits-all model that would nationalize education and jeopardize student privacy.
Crowe said parents and teachers are unhappy with the new standards, and he said the volume of complaints would only get louder if lawmakers don't force change.
"These people are screaming from the tops of mountains to do something," he said after hours of often emotional testimony.
Senators said shelving the standards would create disruption in classrooms and would keep students from being able to be graded against students from other states.
The House Education Committee already had rejected similar legislation.
Gov. Bobby Jindal supports scrapping Common Core and its associated testing, but the move is opposed by Chas Roemer, the president of the state education board, and Superintendent of Education John White.