A bill that creates a task force to evaluate Common Core education standards in South Dakota is headed for the Senate floor. A Senate committee passes the measure to the full body, but some lawmakers have reservations. Those questions center on the timing of the review, its content, and potential for a polarized council.
Members of the state Senate Education committee tackle their first piece of legislation in Senate Bill 62. The initiative creates a panel to evaluate and review the effectiveness of the Common Core in South Dakota.
State Senator Ernie Otten says a comprehensive review of Common Core would provide facts to determine whether the system is enhancing education.
"One of the things that I found also within this conversation that is going on in South Dakota is that there is no conversation. We are talking at each other and normally with great passion. That has to stop," Otten says. "We have to find a way in which we can actually communicate to one another, talk to one another, and find something that we can anchor ourselves around, and that is data."
Otten says facts determined over time can clarify the Common Core’s impact. He says South Dakota doesn’t have that information right now.
Senate Bill 62 meets some opposition. Mark Chase with the South Dakota Family Policy Council says a task force seeking public input on Common Core Standards is likely to find people commenting on curriculum, not the actual educational rubric.
"Well, you see, the standards are the skeleton, and you need the muscle and the tendons and ligaments and the flesh, and that’s the curriculum. Then the assessment is the diagnostic tool to see how we’ve done. The standards don’t do the teaching," Chase says.
Chase calls the effort a waste of money. He says this sort of an examination should have been done before South Dakota started implementing the Common Core years ago.
Members of the Senate Education committee weigh concerns that the review is happening too late and that members of the panel won’t be unbiased. They also question the 100-thousand dollar rough appropriation in the bill.
Still, the committee sends Senate Bill 62 to the full Senate body with a vote of 5-2.
