House and Senate vote to end common core in Oklahoma. Fallin signing off on it doesn’t appear to be a slam dunk:
OKLAHOMA CITY — Concerns about federal overreach, frustration with the state Department of Education, United Nations conspiracies, Bill Gates and Hillary Clinton trumped Oklahoma’s Common Core standards in the Legislature on Friday, the last day of the 2014 legislative session.
With about a dozen anti-Common Core activists in the visitors’ gallery, the House voted 71-18 to end the state’s brief experiment with national academic standards for K-12.
The bill then passed 31-10 in the Senate. To become law, it still would have to get the signature of Gov. Mary Fallin, which is no sure thing. Because the Legislature adjourned Friday, she could let the bill die by taking no action.
Fallin said she had not seen the legislation but said she will review it over the next several days with input from parents and educators.
“I certainly have heard the concerns about people worried about federal intrusion,” Fallin said.
Common Core occupied the House for about two hours on an unusually uneventful last day of the session. A bill that would put additional restrictions on abortion clinics, left to third from last, went through 60-8 after having set off considerable fireworks earlier in the session.
House Bill 3399, which replaces the national Common Core standards with what likely will be similar ones developed by the state, was originally authored by Speaker Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview, but was carried in its final form by Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, and Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate.
Opponents of the measure warned of the potential for dire consequences, primarily in the form of federal intervention into most of the state’s schools. Repealing Common Core could cause the state to lose its waiver from the No Child Left Behind program, which in turn could cause schools to lose control of about $27 million in federal aid and state or federal takeover of hundreds of Oklahoma schools.
Nelson agreed that it is possible and perhaps likely that the state will lose its waiver, but he said, “I don’t think it will be as bad as (others) think it is.
“To say we have local control right now (because of the waiver) is an illusion,” Nelson continued. “Today is a day we can begin to get it back.”
Rep. John Bennett, R-Sallisaw, said Common Core was “getting its claws” into Oklahoma’s children in order to indoctrinate them in a U.N.-led agenda of “a sustainable world without borders.”
God, he said, “is being replaced in our schools by Darwin and Marx.”
“Common Core is the most dangerous Trojan Horse ever brought to our gates,” Bennett said.
“Don’t let the federal government come in and spoil our children and turn them into little drones,” he urged.
On the Senate side, Brecheen quoted some sexually explicit passages from a Toni Morrison novel and implied that it would be required reading for all Oklahoma school students if Common Core remained in place.
Most of the rhetoric, though, was more reserved, with opponents saying rejecting Common Core would be the first step toward weaning Oklahoma public education from federal aid.
Rep. Todd Thomsen, R-Ada, said Common Core is “politically dead,” and he blamed the state Department of Education, which he said had alienated parents at a time it needed to be winning their trust.
“My trust level is at an all-time low,” Thomsen said. “I’m voting no because I’m cutting ties with Common Core, not because anyone in the gallery asked me. I don’t trust them, either.”
Rep. Emily Virgin, D-Norman, said she was “flabbergasted by the misinformation on this subject. I understand not thinking these standards are inappropriate. … (But) this is not a federal conspiracy.”
Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, begged to differ. Speaking next, she said Friday’s vote was a “battle for the hearts and minds of our children,” and she proceeded to read from a letter she said was sent to Hillary Clinton in 1992 and which she said proved that Common Core is a federal conspiracy.
The letter described something it called a “national human resources system.”
Rep. Jerry McPeak, D-Warner, said he was one of 12 members to vote against Common Core when it was first approved by the Legislature in 2010 but that he was voting to keep it now because of the uncertainty HB 3399 would create and because educators need to be left alone to do their jobs.
He also ridiculed those who said they want to refuse federal money.
“Forty percent of our state budget is federal money,” he said. “What are you going to do? Send it back?”
Among those critical of the bill was Tulsa Regional Chamber President Mike Neal, who urged Fallin to veto it.
“By reversing three years of work by Oklahoma’s educators to implement Common Core State Standards, HB 3399 represents a costly step backward — not just for students and teachers, but for taxpayers, who would foot the bill for the additional time and work needed to create and implement new standards,” he said in a statement.
Other bills: The House rejected two bills late in the day, one that would have made it easier for municipally owned utilities to collect delinquent bills and another that would have required child-care centers to carry a certain level of liability insurance. It was the second-straight year the latter bill has failed on the final day of session.
The House did approve Senate Bill 1848, which places additional requirements on abortion clinics and gives the board of health responsibility for licensing and inspections.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepage1/repeal-of-common-core-standards-sent-to-governor/article_ea3ad9b1-cdac-5c7c-8057-df65b650898b.html
