A message from Kansas PTA President, Denise Sultz on the Kansas House Education Committee
I am saddened by the tactics yesterday used by some members of the House Education Committee to get a bill out of committee and on to the floor for a vote. Read my statement here: http://www.kansas-pta-legislative.org/sites/default/files/Kansas-House-Education-Committee-Message-From-Denise-Sultz-21816.pdf
I am saddened by the tactics yesterday used by some members of the House Education Committee to get a bill out of committee and on to the floor for a vote.
Last week, Kansas PTA heard that HB 2676, a bill to ban any standards that were aligned with the original Common Core standards, was introduced into this committee and because our Legislative Platform aligns with high standards for Kansas students, we prepared testimony to speak against this bill and waited for the announcement that it would be heard in committee.
Instead we heard an announcement that an Education Historian from Wisconsin was being brought in to speak to the committee on Wednesday February 17th. So we waited for the announcement that it was time for testimony to be given for or against this bill. This announcement never came. Instead, some members of this committee perpetrated a shell game. They performed a legislative procedure known as a “gut and go”.
In other words, they took this HB 2676 and stripped the contents of a different bill out and inserted the wording of this bill. The bill that they chose, HB2292, was a bill from last year that had been heard in committee last year. Because HB2292 had been heard in committee, there was no requirement to notify the public of a hearing or to allow testimony. In a move that further brings to questions motives, several members of the House Education Committee were “replaced for the day” by Speaker Merrick with other Legislators including Legislators who had sponsored HB2676. This bill was passed out of committee and now will come to the full House.
I have a number of issues with this maneuver.
First and foremost, is that these members took away your voice. If you were for the standards that Kansas is currently using, they chose not to listen to you. They not only chose not to listen to you, they chose not to allow you to speak.
The second issue that I have with this bill is cost. The Kansas Department of Education estimates that it will cost about Nine Million Dollars to rewrite standards from scratch and that it will take two years. That does not add in the cost to every school district in the state who potentially could have to choose new curriculum before it was scheduled. And what curriculum is out there and available to be used that is absolutely not aligned with Common Core? Is it as good as what we have now or would a school district have to choose an inferior curriculum in the hopes of not running afoul of the state mandate?
Another issue that I have is that this particular bill that was stuffed into HB 2292 states that districts can not use anything aligned with the Common Core. That would not only include any curriculum that any local school district has chosen, it could potentially also be the ACT’s, the SAT’s, AP classes, IB and even the Lexia reading program. Is that really the intent of parents in Kansas? Do we really want to hamper our students in this way?
Another issue that I have is the complete lack of efficiency. Isn’t that what Kansas just paid a consulting firm for, to find savings and efficiencies? Don’t we have state wide committees looking for efficiencies? How could this change of the entire state education standards to satisfy a few be considered efficient?
The Kansas Board of Education’s task is to set the Standards for the State of Kansas. In their due diligence, they have been doing just that. Kansas is in the 6th year of their current 7 year cycle of standards. By statute, they must revisit them by the 2017 school year. This past fall, the current standards were posted on the KSDE website for several months so that stakeholders could comment on any changes that they felt were needed to any particular standard. This is part of our process to be the best Kansas that we can be for our students so that they can enjoy success after they exit our school system. That process would be an entire waste if this bill passes the house because none of those standards could be used.
The Kansas College and Career Ready Standards had some stumbles when they were first introduced. Most of those issues have been addressed and remedied by the Kansas Board of Education, the Kansas Department of Education, local School Boards and Curriculum Directors across the State, Superintendents, Teachers, and our students and parents. These are the stakeholders in Education whose voices were not heard yesterday.
All of the time that we have been rallying together to help Kansas students learn and achieve, others have been rallying to pull the rug out from under everyone. Do we really believe that using NONE of the standards that are part of the original English and Math Standards referred to as Common Core is a good base for our education? What if one of the original Common Core standards mentions that children should learn fractions? Does that mean that Kansas children should no longer have that in their tool box of learning tools?
In the past two years, members of Kansas PTA have spoken at schools and districts across the state. We have answered questions, given information on education in Kansas, and have cleared up misconceptions about our standards and the process that goes into creating them. No Race to the Top money was accepted by Kansas. There is nothing in Common Core that changes the fact that your local school district chooses the curriculum for your children. All testing was written in Kansas by those that had written our testing for us in the past. All of these decisions were made by Kansans in Kansas and that is the way we want it. Common Core does not mandate curriculum. It is a series of benchmarks or incremental stair steps that students must achieve the goals of one step and then they move forward to the next step. Isn’t that the way to learn?
I read an analogy of standards being compared to making a cake and I bring it forward for consideration: two bakers making a cake could have completely different outcomes. They might use different oven temperatures, they might bake the cake for a different length of time, or they might add different spices to the batter all of which could affect the flavor. But one thing that they both know is that you cannot make a cake without flour, milk, eggs and butter. Those ingredients form the base that no cake can be without. And so it is with standards. It would be difficult to write standards without using the original Common Core. Why do I say that?
Because the original standards were written to have the best educational outcomes for students as the end result. Even if you feel that they are not currently perfect, our Board of Ed members are addressing changes and we need to continue to move forward.
This new bill, HB 2292, could be heard by the full house as early as Monday or Tuesday of next week. I urge you to use your voice to let members of the Kansas house know how you feel about the tactics that were used, how you feel about them undermining the educational process, and how you feel about the lack of leadership they are displaying. We owe it to the children that go to public school in Kansas to step up and defend their education. Please feel free to contact not only your legislator, but also members of the House Education Committee, and members of the Kansas House at large.
Sincerely,
Denise Sultz
Kansas PTA President