Debate on Common Core Held in Brighton by RetakeOurGov Debate on Common Core Held in Brighton by RetakeOurGov

5/15/13 - The local Tea Party group in Livingston County, RetakeOurGov, conducted a debate at Memories Restaurant and Lounge in Brighton Township Tuesday night on Common Core educational standards. Michigan is one of 45 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have adopted Common Core standards for its public schools. Taking opposite sides in the debate were Eileen Weiser, a member of the state Board of Education and supporter of Common Core, and Melanie Kurdys, who is opposed. Kurdys is a past candidate for the state board and former member of the Portage Board of Education. A show of hands in the capacity audience indicated that virtually everyone in attendance is opposed to Common Core. Weiser told the crowd that Common Core establishes educational standards in two subject areas – math and English/language arts – that she says are necessary if the U.S is to compete in the new global economy. Weiser says there are many misconceptions about Common Core, including that it supposedly establishes a specific curriculum for public schools, which she says is not the case. Kurdys told her audience that the people who established Common Core didn’t go about it right. Rather than sitting in a room dreaming up an entirely new set of standards, she says they should have followed the program used by Massachusetts. She says that state has consistently scored the highest among the 50 states in academic disciplines. Common Core was adopted in Michigan by the state Board of Education in 2010 and is supported by Governor Snyder, who has said politics is driving the opposition and not educational concerns. It is set to be implemented starting this year, but it has never been approved by the legislature. Now a state Republican House member from Rochester Hills, Rep. Tom McMillin, has introduced a budget amendment that would prevent the state Department of Education from using state funds to implement the Common Core standards and assessment tests. McMillin has also introduced a bill, now in a house committee, that would force Michigan to withdraw from Common Core entirely. State education officials say moving away from Common Core now would add “great cost” to districts and the state which has already paid to align curriculum towards those standards. (TT/JK)