Legislators know best

Yesterday SB 167 was voted down by the House Education Committee. The author and Sponsor of the Senate Bill (SB) testified and answered questions from the House Education Committee. SB 167, as offered by Senator Ligon, was a step towards blocking Georgia from testing students on educational material linked to any set of national Standards including CCSS (Common Core). The vote in the House Education committee effectively ended the possibility for this session of protecting Georgia’s ability to control the Standards used in the classroom, as well as, the security of student records. It is hard to understand how the Republican majority on the committee could vote against a Bill, already approved by the Senate, that protects Georgia’s sovereignty and its ability to keep control of education in the hands of Georgians.

This issue is far too important to kick down the road and that is what happened today. The consequences are many, in terms of the taxpayer dollars that will be spent, the effect on teachers and students as we hang in limbo. The debate on CCSS will continue into another year. Where is the leadership on Education? Why are we continuing with CCSS? Education is an important issue in Georgia. Over half the State budget goes toward education, so it is an important issue that needs debate and input from all parties…parents, teachers and administrators.  What we see from our elected officials is an attitude of “Legislators know best”.

With the killing of SB 167, Georgia is on a course to accept the overreach of special interests from outside Georgia having a hand in the education of our children. This is not a road that we want to go down.  Sadly the Governor and Leadership in the State House are assuming they know what is best.  So Georgia will continue down the road of Common Core, despite the concerns of parents, teachers and vast majority of Americans that understand the problems inherent in CCSS.  

Why would we move authority for Education away from the local School Boards, which has been the cornerstone of education in America? I believe we should resist shifting control and responsibility for education to the legislative body at the State Capitol. Invariably the politics, the picking of winners and losers with your tax dollars hold too much sway under the Gold Dome. My fear is that any top down approach, which can dictate/mandate any aspect, be it standards, curriculum, or pedagogy, weakens local control and makes education vulnerable to funding holdups by Federal or State authorities. This is not something that serves to improve Education, it only politicizes the decision making process. To fix the problem we must work towards establishing a way in which the dollars spent on Education are attached to the individual student and that requires leadership not “legislators know best”.