Last Saturday, Townhall.com reported that the Missouri legislature has voted to end the Common Core educational standards in the state of Missouri. Common Core is a set of educational standards (not necessarily a bad idea) that has become controversial as people have realized some of the underlying aspects of it. Some of the problems with Common Core are invasive data collection with no privacy guarantees, a very politically slanted companion curriculum, and lessons for younger children that are not age-appropriate. As more and more people become aware of the contents of this program, more parents are contacting their legislators and asking that it be removed from their children’s schools.

The article at Townhall.com explains the current status of Common Core in Missouri:

House Bill 1490 (HB1490) passed through the state senate on May 1 by a 24-8 margin. It had previously passed the house by a 132-19 vote. Since the Senate version differed from the House version, the House had an opportunity to accept the amendments offered by the Senate, but refused. That sends the bill to a joint conference committee, with members of both chambers, to work out the differences in the bill and finalized the version going to the governor.

A spokesman for Rep. Bahr, the bill’s chief sponsor, said, “The conference was requested by the floor leader since the house passed a four page bill and the senate sent back a 44 page version. He did not feel like there would be enough time for all 150 house reps to pour over all of the new information in the bill to pass it speedily and also doing their duty.”

The amendments do not stop the bill from taking important steps to re-establish local control of education and end involvement with Common Core in the state. HB1490 states that “[each] local school board shall be responsible for the approval and adoption of curriculum used by the school district.” It also would sanction “work groups composed of education professionals to develop and recommend academic performance standards” which would ultimately be used to replace Common Core by the 2016-2017 school year.

It is time for all states to return control of their schools to the local school boards and educators. They are the people who know and understand the needs of the community. If you are a parent of a school-age parent and your state legislature is in session, please learn about Common Core and call your state legislators to ask that it be removed from your state. Your children are depending on you.