This is a guest post (below the break)from a reader who attended yesterday’s Senate Education committee meeting, where SB 812 was discussed and passed. SB 815 was also discussed and passed, which is important as it serves to protect our student’s privacy and data.

Pay attention to the portion where Mark Jewell of the NCAE steps up with prepared remarks.  In those remarks, he quotes an independent study and says he will make it available to the Committee.  I’ve challenged them to make it public and include the methodology.

@NCAE‘s Mark Jewell: You said you had a study that said teachers love #CommonCore. Share it with the public – including the metholdology.

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) June 5, 2014

Since yesterday’s meeting, SB 812 has been voted on by the Senate and passed 33-15. It now goes to the House.

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Report from Senate Committee Meeting 6/4

Yesterday the Senate Education Committee met to vote on 2 bills, SB 815 and SB 812

The room was packed. I noticed many people with “lobbyist” lapel tags, lots of people with legislative name tags, the Wake County Taxpayers Association, Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association, NC School Boards Association, The Hunt Institute, NCAE, Chamber of Commerce, ACT Inc., and other special interest groups had representatives there; parents, citizens and the media were also in attendance.

One group that stood out were the young pages and I was glad to see them.  Each senator has a page and it was a nice touch for them to be introduced to everyone. Too bad, there were not there during the public comments meeting; they could have learned a great deal from public input. Perhaps they will find the subject of Common Core interesting enough (since they are living it in school) to watch the videos of the public comments meeting. This was a civics lesson for all of us.

The first bill discussed was SB793 Charter School Modifications, Senator Tillman said the bill needs more work before a vote.

Next up was SB815 Ensuring Privacy of Student Records.

Bill sponsors: Chad Barefoot;  Andrew C. Brock;  Dan Soucek;  (Primary)
Bill Cook;  David L. Curtis;  Warren Daniel;  Joyce Krawiec;  Shirley B. Randleman;  Norman W. Sanderson;  Jerry W. Tillman;

Senator Barefoot introduced the bill to the committee.

The bill is a good first step to protect student data privacy and protect parental rights. Senator Barefoot did acknowledge that FERPA has changed. Some noted callouts in the bill are:

Create and make publicly available a data inventory and index of data elements with definitions of individual student data fields, including any personally identifiable student data required to be reported by State and federal education mandates and proposed data sets including the purpose for the proposed collection.

Transparency yes!

Develop rules to comply with all relevant State and federal privacy laws and policies that apply to personally identifiable student data in the

student data system, including, but not limited to, FERPA and other relevant privacy laws and policies. At a minimum, the rules shall include the restrictions on access to personally identifiable student data in the student data system.

Prohibit the transfer of personally identifiable student data in the student data system

Develop a detailed security plan for the student data system

The bill specifically states – The following information about a student or a student’s family shall not be collected in nor reported as part of the student data system:

Biometric information, Political affiliation, Religion, Voting history.

Part II of the bill calls for parental notification regarding rights to student records and opt-out opportunities (such as surveys). There were only a few questions from members of the committee. One area of concern I have is the lack of penalties. This is an area for improvement.

The bill passed overwhelmingly with a voice vote.

Next up was SB 812 Maintain State Auth. Over Academic Standards.

Bill Sponsors Dan Soucek;  Jerry W. Tillman;  (Primary)
Andrew C. Brock;  Bill Cook;  David L. Curtis;  Warren Daniel;  Neal Hunt;  Joyce Krawiec;  Shirley B. Randleman;  Norman W. Sanderson;

First there were some technical amendments that passed such as changing the number of members on the commission from 9 to 11 and increasing the number of appointments by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 3 to 4. Also added was the ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) as an appropriate assessment model. The technical amendments passed easily via a voice vote.

Tillman mentioned that might be an amendment brought to the floor, but since he hasn’t had enough time to review it yet, it was not included today. I don’t have any further details as to what might be in the amendment…stay tuned.

Senator Tillman walked through the history of how we got to this point. He mentioned his experience working with conservatives, liberals, BEST, the Chamber of Commerce and others. He has 40 years of experience as an educator and came out strongly in support of the bill. He wants NC to develop the best standards for our state and he made a point of highlighting some of the problems with Common Core Standards (developmentally inappropriate for K-3 and too weak for older students). He often cited the math standards as a problem area. I noticed a lot of heads nodding in agreement from parents in the audience. Tillman said we can do better than Common Core and we must have NC Standaards.

Senator Stein started with the Pro-Common Core talking points including the reference to the “survey” that 82% of teachers support Common Core. Lady Liberty has repeatedly exposed the problems with that “survey” as a refresher, you can read up on that for yourself.  Stein also said why should we create uncertainty and destabilize education.

Never does Senator Stein mention parents, we can tell you firsthand that there is a lot of uncertainty and education has been completely been destabilized since Common Core was adopted. There are many teachers who are afraid to speak out against Common Core because they fear for their jobs. Teachers are leaving the profession because of CC. See: Common Core’s Long Shadow a Primary Reason Former Teacher Is Pulling Her Kids from School District She Grew Up In.

There were several discussion topics during the Q&A time. One point Senator Tillman made was the actions taking place across the country with several states backing out of Common Core. He cited NY as a liberal state that has strong opposition to CC from parents and teachers. Tillman again reminded everyone, he never set out to repeal CC but he could not ignore his constituents from both the Left and Right.

What I did not expect during the meeting was the opportunity for the public to speak.  Rep. Holloway allowed ~2 minutes of speaking time for the public to provide input to the committee.  I saw the same puzzled look from other parents and citizens who have attended the LRC Meetings, nobody had expected this opportunity.  Right at the microphone was Mark Jewell, VP of NCAE with prepared remarks. He was ready to go before we knew what was going on.  He read from his prepared statement with passion begging the committee to reconsider and oppose the bill.  Kim Fink of the Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association made her way to the microphone and with no notes, she spoke out passionately against Common Core and received applause from some in the audience.  Those were the only two outside speakers permitted and the Q&A discussion resumed.

There were some interesting exchanges including comments about changing policy based on a few phone calls from citizens to which Tillman responded to quickly. He has commented repeatedly about the input he has received from many citizens in his district. Sen Cook also chimed in stating that he has received many complaints about Common Core. For those who support Common Core have they held any open town hall meetings?