UPDATED with articles and the resolution document – September 18:
State GOP adopts resolution demanding withdrawal from Common Core, science standards
The Kansas Republican Party has adopted a resolution that demands state leaders reject Common Core school standards and prohibit adoption of new science standards.
State GOP Chair Kelly Arnold said today there is “a groundswell of people” who are opposing Common Core standards for reading and math, which are going into effect in Kansas and 44 other states.
“We feel we lose control over what we are allowed to teach our children here in Kansas,” Arnold said.
Kansas GOP gives failing grade to Common Core
Under the Kansas GOP resolution, Republicans declared the standards were adopted by the state Board of Education “without meaningful input from or even effective notice to Kansas parents, teachers and other taxpayers.”
The resolution declared Common Core “obliterates Kansas’ control over English language arts and mathematics standards in our schools” and implicated the state in an “unconstitutional and illegal transfer of power to the federal government.”
It concluded the new guidelines for Kansas public schools committed the state to “a set of mediocre standards based on questionable philosophies.”
ORIGINAL POST – September 15
Today the Kansas Republican Party State Committee passed a resolution opposing the Common Core Standards.
Here is the text of the resolution:
COMMON CORE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, adoption of the Common Core Standards
- Obliterates Kansas’s control over English language arts and mathematics standards in our schools;
- Implicates the state in an unconstitutional and illegal transfer of power to the federal government and unaccountable private interests;
- Commits our state to a set of mediocre standards based on questionable philosophies; and
- Imposes an enormous unfunded mandate on our state and on our local school districts; and
WHEREAS, adoption of the Common Core Standards was accomplished without meaningful input from, or even effective notice to, Kansas parents, teachers, and other taxpayers; and
WHEREAS, administration of the SMARTER Balanced assessments aligned with Common Core will subject Kansas students to burdensome new testing requirements and will unfairly tie teachers’ evaluations to the scores on the assessments; and
WHEREAS, the scheme that includes the Common Core Standards and the SMARTER Balanced assessments will require the collection and sharing of massive amounts of personal student data, thus threatening student and family privacy and serving no legitimate academic purpose;
RESOLVED, that the Kansas Republican Party that our state leaders should
- withdraw the state from the Common Core Standards and aligned assessments;
- prohibit adoption of any standards that require the state to cede any measure of control over their drafting and revision, including but not limited to the Next Generation Science Standards; and
- prohibit the collection and sharing of private student data for any non-academic purpose.
Kansans Against Common Core 