Shame on the Senate Education Committee for approving a bill meddling with Mississippi educational standards without even discussing it with those who are constitutionally charged with handling such matters.
Sen. Videt Carmichael, R-Meridian, is the primary sponsor of a bill that he says will abolish the Common Core standards on which Mississippi educators have spent millions of dollars and hours of time implementing over the past few years.
Who knows what kind of standards are going to come out of all this wrangling — apparently to appease the tea party wing of the state GOP? Something is bound to pass the Senate, given that its leader, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, has joined the chorus of Common Core critics. Reeves was for Common Core before he was against it.
The bill the committee approved for consideration of the full Senate directs the state to adopt new Mississippi College and Career Readiness Standards, to remove any reference to Common Core from its standards, as well as adopt a new assessment aligned with those standards. It also severs the state’s ties with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers consortium and creates the Mississippi Commission on College and Career Readiness to help the state Board of Education in adopting and implementing new standards.
Carmichael, who said he consulted superintendents, teachers and members of his church when drafting his bill, admitted he got no input from State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright or members of the state Board of Education. Wright attended the committee meeting but was not allowed to speak, despite a request for her comments by one member of the committee.
That is ridiculous. Lawmakers don’t have to agree with the state superintendent or the duly appointed board members, but they should at least consider their input as much as random opinions from churches. Most of us could start talking to people at church and — with the exception of everyone agreeing there is a Supreme Being — get any opinion we want.
We can only hope that whatever Mississippi education standards come out of this session of the Legislature don’t dumb down what we have had for generations — standards that have been sorely lacking.
But we’re not optimistic.
