CARPINO, OTHERS FORCE PUBLIC HEARING ON COMMON CORE

Posted on February 26, 2014

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Carpino School Tour Gallery

HARTFORD- State Rep. Christie Carpino (Cromwell and Portland) and the rest of the House Republicans Wednesday, Feb. 26, forced the majority party to stage a formal public hearing on the Common Core curriculum and public school teacher evaluation process by petitioning out legislation that they say the Democrats refused to raise in the Education Committee.

Carpino and other Republican legislators resorted to the seldom used petitioning process by their caucus that allows for legislation to be raised. They gathered the required 51 signatures from their caucus under House Rule 11 that triggered the two bills to be raised with the public hearing to follow.

  • One of the proposals codifies the proposals brought forth by the committee created to establish teacher evaluation standards known as the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council.
  • The second bill would freeze the implementation of the Common Core curriculum until all stakeholders have time to look at its potential effects and consider possible changes.

“I have heard from many educators and parents from Portland and Cromwell who never had the opportunity to weight in before the new curriculum was created and put into motion. There are a lot of unknowns and people deserve to have their concerns heard,” said Carpino.
Carpino, who sits on the Education Committee, proposed several bills at the beginning of the legislative session:

  • Delay the implementation of new teacher evaluations until further discrepancies and concerns can be corrected;
  • Gradually implement the Common Core Standards in schools, instead of adopting it under one rollout;
  • Re-route the $1 million the State Department of Education planned to spend on marketing the Common Core, and instead, use it towards a state-wide competitive grant program for small districts, such as Cromwell and Portland, to help implement the Common Core.

“I look forward to attending the Education committee public hearing on Common Core. Democracy is served best when the people are heard,” said Rep. Carpino.

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