From the office of Sen. Kurt Schaefer:
SCHAEFER WINS FIGHT TO STOP COMMON CORE IN MISSOURI
Under strict orders from legislative language crafted by Kurt Schaefer and other conservative leaders in the Missouri General Assembly, yesterday the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) informed its Common Core testing vendor that the state would withdraw from the consortium and not participate in its Common Core testing.
“Without any question, this is a major victory for Missouri schoolchildren, their parents, and all opponents of the Common Core scheme,” Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) said. “Conservatives in the legislature spoke clearly on this issue, and this time the administration listened.”
Earlier this year, Schaefer, a staunch opponent of the Common Core program, and fellow budget writers in the House and Senate inserted language in House Bill 2 prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being spent to collect, distribute, share individual student data with the federal government. It further required withdrawal from the “Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium”, the Common Core testing entity. Instead, Missouri educators will be required to create state-based assessment programs that are independent of Common Core and accountable to parents and their elected officials.
“Every step Missouri can take away from the continued overreach of the Obama administration and its one-size-fits-all, leftist Common Core agenda is a win for our children,” Schaefer said. “I want to thank Representatives Kurt Bahr and my House Budget counterpart Tom Flanigan for their leadership and foresight on this issue as well.”
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A copy of the letter of withdrawal may be found here: http://www.missourifreedom.com/sites/default/files/smarter_balanced_assessment_letter.pdf
