Tennessee Legislature Repeals Common Core

posted by Patrick Wood
April 23, 2015

In exciting news from Tennessee, its legislature voted unanimously (97-0) on March 20 to repeal Common Core. On March 21, the Tennessee State Senate voted 27 to 1 in favor of repeal, and now the bill goes to the Governor for final endorsement. The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Billy Spivey (R-Lewisburg) stated, "This legislation is a template for all states to begin a much needed journey of separation from federally generated standards and an invitation to embrace each states’ own constitutionally delegated authority to serve its citizens at its own will, as our founders and God surely intended.”
Well, Hooray! for Tennessee.
HB1035 states "WHEREAS, these new Tennessee academic standards shall be adopted and fully implemented in Tennessee public schools in the 2017–2018 school year, at which time the previously adopted set of standards shall be rescinded." Furthermore, all standards committee appointees must be confirmed by the House and Senate. This prevents education leaders from sneaking in people who will "end-run" Common Core standards, and forces legislative review and public debate. Simply brilliant and effective!
The bill walked through with three co-sponsors: Rep. Billy Spivey (R-Lewisburg), Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden), and Rep. Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro).
According to the Tenth Amendment Center,

Committees consisting of “two representatives from institutions of higher education” along with “six educators who reside in the state and work in grades kindergarten through twelve” would be responsible for creating the new academic standards in an open process available for public viewing online. The new standards would be completed by the 2017-2018 school year.

One potential shortcoming of the bill is that it doesn't directly wipe out testing requirements or student data collection. The group Tennessee Against Common Core warns against a simple rebranding of the Federal standards like what happened in a similar instance in Indiana.
While Tennessee is not the end-all legislative model to completely scuttle Common Core on a state level, it is a brave step in the right direction, and we can hope other states will follow suit. At the very least, we can say that the battle is gaining public credibility, which in turn is gathering the attention of public legislators.
To all Anti-Common Core warriors around the nation: You have the moral high ground now, so use it!

Dissenting views from Tennessee: 

"Sorry but Common Core was NOT repealed in Tennessee. It will remain in place for 2 more years while they review the standards. Just more of the same smoke and mirrors." - Karen Bracken, President, Tennessee Against Common Core
"This was Haslam's fake bill, a distraction from the real repeal bill. Repeal and replace is exactly what it is... rebranding it." - Kelleigh Nelson, Knoxville, TV

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Here is where it all started...

Full info on Tennessee HB1035

http://www.localactivist.org/tennessee_legislature_repeals_common_core?utm_campaign=tennessee_ccss&utm_medium=email&utm_source=technocracy