PHOENIX — Common Core is apparently here to stay, at least for now.
The state Senate voted 16-13 Monday to kill legislation that would have required the state Board of Education to scrap the academic standards it approved in 2010. Four Republicans sided with the Democrats opposing the measure.
Monday’s vote is a defeat for Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, who shepherded the measure through the House. It’s also something of a loss for state schools chief Diane Douglas, who was elected largely on a commitment to kill the standards.
Vote also comes exactly a week after Gov. Doug Ducey, a foe of the standards, asked the Board of Education to review — but not to repeal — Common Core, and criticized HB 2190.
“I don’t think that legislation’s necessary because we’re going to fix what’s wrong with these standards,” he said.
The defeat occurred even after Sen. Kimberly Yee, R-Phoenix, agreed to alter some of the more controversial provisions of the measure.
As approved by the House, the legislation would have precluded the state Board of Education, in crafting new standards, from even looking at the Common Core standards or anything in effect in other states.
Yee’s amendment would allow the board to use not only materials from other states but permitted them to adopt portions of standards in effect elsewhere.
That, however, was not enough to gain the three more votes necessary to keep the legislation alive.
Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, told colleagues they are ignoring the will of their voters, as expressed in the election of Douglas over Democrat David Garcia.
Douglas, who was not at the board meeting last week when Ducey gave his speech, was not happy with what happened at the Senate on Monday.
“HB 2190 is an effort that I fully support because it puts additional pressure on the Board of Education to listen to the will of the people,” she said in a prepared statement. But Douglas said even without the legislation, Common Core is on its way out — at least in its current form.
“As the public weighs in around the state, I still believe it will create sufficient momentum for the board to have to improve the standards,” she said.
