On Feb 28, Democrats in the NY Assembly made a back-room deal creating a bill to strike at common core. However, their bill CEMENTS THE CORE IN PLACE. If a matching bill shows up in the NY Senate, it could pass and we could be stuck with the Common Core indefinitely.
To STOP this process, the first step is to prevent the matching Senate bill. Do this by calling AND emailing Senator John Flanagan. As the Senate Education Committee chair, he would be the person who sponsors the matching Senate bill; we need to convince him NOT to do that.
Instead, ask Senator Flanagan to support a truly anti-common core bill, S6604.
email: [email protected]
Long Island: 631-361-2154 (answering machine is ON right now)
Albany: 518-455-2071
You can use the text below to email:
Subject: Common Core Bill
To: John Flanagan <[email protected]>
To: John Flanagan <[email protected]>
Dear Senator Flanagan,
I understand that the NYS Assembly has passed a bill to lessen the impact of Common Core, but that also solidifies Common Core as NYS’s curriculum. I urge you to use your influence to not bring this bill to the Senate floor for support. Although it does some good for students, teachers & schools, it does not deal with the core of the issues related to Common Core. As a result of the current Assembly bill:
1. The U.S. Department of Education would not be responsible for rescinding its RTTT requirements for NYS to support Common Core, its associated testing, VAM for evaluating teachers, and more charter schools.
2. Common Core high-stakes, standardized tests will continue to drive instruction narrowing the curriculum and continue to doom poverty-stricken students to failure. Higher, more rigorous standards and testing does not result in poverty-stricken students performing better in schools! It creates more failures!
3. Rank & file teachers and child development experts are not given the opportunity to review & revise the national Common Core standards and process. This is paramount, if we want educators to own the process and revise CC to reflect developmentally appropriate standards.
4. Accepting the Common Core axiom that all students should meet specific grade level requirements for promotion is not supported by any educational research. We know that children are unique and progress at their own pace. Common Core violates this premise.
Please consider these arguments and use them to create a new bill that supports them. S6604 is a beginning that I urge you to support, as an alternative.
Sincerely,
