Mary Kay Bacallao posted in Educational Freedom Coalition
When Georgia’s State Senators passed SB 89 on March 3, 2015,
they expanded the authority of Georgia’s appointed State Board of Education and
diminished the authority of parents and their locally elected school boards
over “digital instructional materials and content.” With the passage of SB 89, the appointed
State Board of Education will be given the sole authority in the State of
Georgia to select a committee to examine and recommend “instructional materials
and content” for approval by the State Board of Education. If a local school system wants to adopt
“instructional materials and content” that is not on the approved list, they
must have local superintendents from five or more different school systems make
the request. Local boards of education,
parents, and citizens are not permitted to make any requests. If teachers want to request specific
instructional materials and content, “… twenty or more teachers from at least
20 different school systems who teach and are certified to teach the courses
encompassed by the instructional materials and content requested” need to
petition the State Board of Education with their request. (lines 50-53)
According to lines 69-76, the instructional materials and content
purchased by local units of administration with Quality Basic Education Program
funds or any other means of acquisition may, not shall (as written previously),
remain the property of the local unit purchasing or acquiring them. This removes the provision from the law that
instructional materials and content ownership would remain with the local units
of administration. Why would citizens
want to take away local ownership of purchased instructional materials and
content? In addition, this legislation
strongly encourages local boards to provide, “a laptop, tablet, or other
wireless electronic device to each of its students in grades three and higher
or allow students to provide their own for use as the principal source of
reading or accessing instructional materials and content.” (lines 107-109) Senators Mike Crane and Marty Harbin voted
for this bill. We need to make sure that
it is stopped in Georgia’s House of Representatives. At the last Georgia State Board of Education
meeting, integrated Common Core math was replaced with traditional Common Core
math. Common Core math standards and
assessments are owned by McGraw-Hill, a private company. The State Board of Education is now moving on
to revising Georgia’s Science and Social Studies standards. It is anticipated that those revised
standards will align with Common Core as well.
The Georgia Milestones Assessment will be given in April; a test aligned
with Common Core in math and English/Language Arts. There will not be separate tests for reading
or writing, but those subjects will be “integrated” with the other subjects.
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Comments
There is nothing wrong with computer use in
schools, but it should expand access to materials, not restrict it. I trust the accuracy of Wikipedia’s version
of history more than I trust our textbooks.
The GA Legislature needs to use the homeschool playbook to clean up the
public schools.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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