A Settled Issue?

According to a blog in this mornings Idaho Statesman, the Governor’s Education Reform Task Force doesn’t want to talk about Common Core. It’s not even on their list of items to discuss according to Mr. Richert.  However I went back and found the website that I first learned about the task force meetings and found that Common Core is indeed one of the topics to be discussed:

(emphasis mine)

•    Funding school districts based on enrollment rather than attendance;
•    Establishing stable funding for school districts;
•    Addressing the challenge many districts face of recruiting and retaining teachers;
•    Developing and fully funding a new salary model for certificated, classified, and administrative school staff;
•    Improving efficiencies across the state with less reliance on supplemental levies;
•    Improving effectiveness of teachers, administrators, and local school boards;
•    Eliminating grade levels and advancing students based on mastery;
•    Questions of local control and holding districts accountable for improving student achievement;
•    Increasing early-childhood education in Idaho, which data strongly suggests is the most effective investment we can make in schools, our children, and society;
•    And a primary focus of educators around the country today, implementing the Common Core State Standards.

So, I’m not going crazy.  It was originally on the list of topics to be discussed.

But, according to Mr. Richert, it’s a “settled issue.”

I would like to issue a couple of corrections to the Article.

1. These standards were not approved by both the Senate and House Education Committees.  It was only the Senate Ed. Committee that approved these in January of 2011.
2. These are not “Idaho Core Standards.”  Renaming them as such doesn’t make them any more state-led or Idaho’s.  If you want to talk about Idaho’s Core Standards then you’re talking about science, history, social studies, P.E. etc.  Common Core ELA and Math Standards are not Idaho’s.
3. This is far from a “settled issue”.   At no time during the states adoption of Common Core were parents brought into the equation and there are many people, parents and otherwise, who feel there is a lot left to discuss about Common Core.  This is only a settled issue when we the citizens of Idaho say it’s a settled issue.
   Read more here: http://blogs.idahostatesman.com/what-the-k-12-task-force-wants-to-discuss-and-what-it-doesnt-want-to-discuss/#storylink=cpy