The GOP-dominated legislature spoke loud and clear in rejecting Common Core standards and establishing a commission to recommend a new curriculum. But well into its work, the commission has yet to be funded.
"This is our third meeting now and (the lack of budget) just sort of communicates to me that there's very low expectations of this commission," Tammy Covil, a commission member who sits on the New Hanover County Schools board of education, told the Journal’s Arika Herron.
We tend to get that impression as well. The legislature must finance this commission whose job is to rewrite math and English standards for the more than 1 million public school students in grades k-12. As Herron reported, “the bill that created the Academic Standards Review Commission … makes clear that the commission should have money to hire staff, conduct research and cover the expenses of its members who are tasked with driving to Raleigh for monthly meetings.”
“The original drafts of the bill that created the commission called for a $250,000 budget but that was deleted in the final negotiations between members of the
N.C. House and Senate,” she reported. “Instead, the bill only says the commission
will have a budget ‘to the extent that funds are available.’”
Legislators must find that money. Commission members, who must produce their report by December of 2015, have had to cover the costs as best they can.
The dedicated commission members haven’t let the lack of funding stop them. They’ve charged on with their work, learning and asking questions. All the while, they’ve been paying what they can out of their pockets. But they can’t front the considerable research and staff costs their crucial work will entail.
"We need the money," Jeannie Metcalf, who is also a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education, told the Journal. "And we don't have it."
Other commission members said that if the budget issue is not soon resolved, it will start to affect their work.
State Sen. Jerry Tillman, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, heard the start of the commission’s meeting Monday as members discussed their budget concerns. “I heard it loud and clear,” he told the Journal.
Good. Now he should meet with his fellow legislators and get the money rolling.
As Covil said: "This is a tremendous responsibility, and we've got to have the resources we need to complete our charge. If we're not going to get any funding, then why are we all here?"
We’d have to ask the same question if that funding doesn’t come through. And we’d have to wonder why the legislature rejected Common Core if it wasn’t serious about finding a better set of standards.
