Peters says she’ll fight to reverse Common Core Standards initiative

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Common Core Standards passed the Alabama State School Board 7-2 last week.

But, District 2 board member Betty Peters isn’t out of the fight yet.

Last week, the state school board sided with Gov. Bob Riley and Alabama became the 40th state to adopt the same set of core standard for teaching math and English.

Peters and District 3 board member Stephanie Bell opposed the measure along with Gov.-elect Robert Bentley.

Bentley and the new school board can reverse the vote after they take office in January.

But the likelihood remains uncertain.

“It did sound like something we could be able to do,” Peters said. “It has not been particularly doable in other places. I might know more about it soon. I do know it would have to be put on the agenda by the superintendent (Dr. Joe Mo-rton). We had problems like that with Roy Johnson in the two-year college system. Superintendents do not have to do put it on the agenda.”

Peters said she agrees with Bentley and that the vote should have been postponed until three new board members took office, and that she doesn’t agree with the federal control of education.

“I agree with Bentley. He said that we needed less, not more federal control,” she said. “He was also against Race to the Top.”

Peters said there is a lot of uncertainty and the rules tend to change.

“It’s hard to get details,” she said. “It’s hard to find something cut and dry. The Congress nor the state legislature neither one have voted on it. It’s being done by grants. It’s very unreliable and too loose of a form of government.”

Peters said she’s not giving up, but it will depend on how the mix of the new board will be or if any current board members will change their minds.

“I have tried to get the standards better,” she said. “I helped put the math standards to a vote, and other times I have been intricately involve in changing the course standards before we voted on them.

“There is no limit in how far we can go,” she said. “I wish we could have just copied Massachusetts in math and English.”

“Apparently there is no choice to make a difference until Dr. Bentley and his advisers come on board,” she said.