Common Core repeal dies in Kansas House committee

A bill that would have repealed the Common Core education standards in Kansas died in committee Friday after a long and heated debate.

Common Core is a set of national English and mathematics standards adopted by the state Board of Education in 2010. HB 2292, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Scapa, R-Wichita, would have eliminated the standards as of July 2015.

Scapa’s bill referred to subjects beyond math and English, so many educators worried that it would eliminate science and history standards as well. The legislation was strongly opposed by school districts, members of the state board and education advocacy organizations. Proponents of the standards say they support developing critical thinking skills and keep Kansas competitive with other states.

Reps. Amanda Grosserode, R-Lenexa, and John Bradford, R-Leavenworth, both offered amendments in the House Education Committee on Friday that would have given the state options to phase out the standards gradually.

Grosserode’s amendment would have required the state Board of Education to submit standards for the Legislature to approve in 2017, creating the possibility that new standards could be adopted.

Bradford’s amendment would have ended Common Core in July 2017 and required the board to submit new standards for approval. If the Legislature failed to approve new standards independent from the Common Core, the state would revert to pre-2010 standards.

Both measures failed.

Bradford said eliminating Common Core this summer would throw schools into chaos and his amendment would offer time to develop an alternative. He also said it would be more likely to pass on the House floor.

These measures failed in part because some supporters of repeal, such as Rep. Tony Barton, R-Leavenworth, refused to vote for anything other than immediate repeal.

“The people have asked us to get Common Core out of the state and so our job is to do that,” Barton said. “We would have had it for two more years. I would have preferred it and the constituents would have preferred it to get rid of it now.”

Bradford exchanged words with Barton at the end of the meeting. “Thanks. You just got Common Core another seven years,” he said angrily.

“Give me a break. It’s not about who had the best bill, it’s could we get a bill to go to the floor,” Bradford said to reporters shortly after. “I’ve got three years worth of effort put in. I did 40-some-odd town halls across the state at my own expense.”

Friday was the Legislature’s “drop-dead day,” the deadline for bills to advance out of most committees. So although the legislation may resurface as an amendment at some point, the issue is likely settled for the session.

Misconceptions

The standards are controversial partly because of a misconception that they were developed by the federal government.

They were developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers and adopted by states voluntarily. They have been endorsed by President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education has offered incentives for their adoption.

Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield, said opponents of the standards had spread misinformation.

Rep. Carolyn Bridges, D-Wichita, who spent four decades as a teacher and administrator in Wichita, said she could not figure out what backers of the bill opposed in the standards.

She pointed to one of the standards, which requires a kindergartener to be able to count 100, and asked why anyone would oppose that and if schools should no longer teach counting.

“I only have a doctorate (in education),” Bridges joked. “Maybe I’m not smart enough to figure this out.”

Common Core opponents

Opponents of the standards have offered a variety of reasons why they should be repealed.

Rep. Jerry Lunn, R-Overland Park, called the standards indoctrination. Barton and Scapa contend that Common Core-aligned texts are pornographic.

During the meeting, Barton held up works of literature he said were pornographic, including Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Cristina Garcia’s “Dreaming in Cuban.” Barton said the work of Morrison, a Nobel Prize-winning author, is not suitable for high school students.

“To kids, when you’re describing sexual intercourse and describing graphically sexual bedroom-type activity in class, that’s very disturbing,” Barton said. “This is adult content. This is mature. It doesn’t belong in high school. It doesn’t belong in class. None of these books belong in any class.”

Common Core supporters

Earlier in the week, a group of 30 students, teachers and parents from the Wichita school district visited the Capitol to lobby against the repeal of Common Core. Two students visited Scapa’s office, but said they were asked to leave when he took out “The Bluest Eye” to show the two adults with them.

“I think what he (Scapa) needs is a teacher,” said Steve Maack, an English teacher at Wichita East High School who was in the group.

“I mean that’s the whole point when you take books with difficult material and the teacher works you through it. Because I teach Toni Morrison and so I can tell you that, yeah, there are some troubling things in ‘Beloved’ (another Morrison novel), but if you’re not troubled by them, that’s the problem,” Maack said. “You should be troubled by them and then the role of the teacher is to work through what’s going on. That’s exactly the role of the teacher.”

Scapa said he was very disappointed by the bill’s defeat in committee Friday.

“I believe there are many parents disappointed,” he added, pointing to a stack of petitions from parents seeking repeal.

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Common Core repeal dies in Kansas House committee."