Proposed Bill Would Repeal Common Core Curriculum Standards

Story by Matthew McGevna 

An Albany lawmaker is slated to introduce a bill Tuesday morning on Long Island that would withdraw the state’s public schools from its involvement in the Common Core Curriculum.

The bill sponsored by Assemblyman Al Graf, R-Holbrook and co-signed by David McDonough, R-Merrick and and Tom McKevitt, R-East Meadow, would also withdraw New York from the national Race to the Top initiative, which many critics say is the backbone of the Common Core, a recently adopted set of national educational standards that not only address student learning objectives, but institute curriculum guidelines. Assemblyman Graf is scheduled to unveil the bill, numbered A07994, at a press event in front of his Holbrook headquarters. 

The proposed legislation that Graf will try and muster through the State Legislature comes in the aftermath of many East Meadow parents refusing to allow their children to take the state assessments this spring due to frustration at increased testing in schools.

Tuesday’s press conference was sparked initially by the Facebook group, "Parents and Teachers Against the Common Core," which has more than 2,200 followers. The group’s administrators were personally involved in drafting the new proposed legislation being introduced.

"The press conference is going to be straight from the horse's mouth on why we need to withdraw from Common Core and Race to the Top,” said Jeanine Cozzetti, one of the administrators on the Facebook page. “It’s not just standards, it’s not just a test, it’s not just data-mining."

Cozzetti said she initially got interested in the latest education reforms when she learned about "Opting Out" of standardized tests. While she admitted she was skeptical of opting out at first, her research led her to this fight against the Common Core. Some of the issues with the Common Core is the idea that a nationalized standard removes control over content from local districts, the standards' "one size fits all" approach to learning and the cost to local districts in instituting Common Core, among others.

Now that fight has been put to ink and co-signed by 24 other state lawmakers in the Assembly, including McDonough and McKevitt, whose districts both include East Meadow. For Cozzetti and the group, the challenge now is to get an identical bill drafted for the State Senate. To that end, they have organized a blitz campaign pushing Senators Lee Zeldin and Phil Boyle to lead the charge.

Whether or not the bill can pass in either house and get signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo remains a matter of confident hope for Cozzetti.

"My goal has been to draft a bill and a lot of people have said it’ll never be done in New York," Cozzetti said. "But I have to be on the 'We The People" side. I believe we can do it, because we have driven parents and driven teachers."