Rep. Brooks Coleman sets the record straight on Common Core

Gwinnett Republican State House Forum

May 13, 2014 at Marcos Pizza

Transcript of Comments made by Representative Brooks Coleman, Chairman of the House Education Committee, to a question about his position on Common Core.

“I think it is very unfair of you to ask a person to answer yes or no on Common Core, because I think it is deeper than that. You cannot answer that question yes or no. First of all if you ask me if I am I favor of federal intrusion in education, definitely not, I am not. You can ask me if I am for State sovereignty, yes. If you ask me if I am for professionally good standards, yes. Another thing, I have been accused of having said that I had input into the Common Core. Let the record show I never had anything to do with identifying the standards, implementation of the standards, they were done by the Governors and the State school officers did that.” Watch Clip

Common Core (CCSS) is one of the issues in this campaign that differentiates the candidates. I believe we need to exit CCSS, while Representative Coleman’s position can be best understood in the words he used last night at the Gwinnett GOP Candidate Forum, of which the transcript is provided above.

My position reflects the State Republican Party’s resolution on Common Core. Representative Coleman takes the position that CCSS just needs to be fixed; which is counter to the Georgia Republican Party’s position on Common Core.

For the record, I do not believe Representative Coleman had any input into identifying the standards, or implementation of the standards. He seems to think it’s a good thing that he had no input into the most radical Georgia education reform in history. But I find it troubling given his chairmanship of the House Education Committee that oversees education.  He can honestly say that he did not vote in favor of Common Core, because no legislator had the opportunity to vote on Common Core’s adoption. I would hope that, as Chairman of the House Education Committee since 2006, Representative Coleman would have provided Governor Perdue input on the direction of education initiatives.  But he didn’t – because Common Core was adopted and implemented in 2010 through the National Governors Association, with financial inducement through Race to the Top federal grants. Through Common Core, Georgia education in English and math is now controlled by anonymous, unaccountable outsiders.

The question of the day is what direction we go from here. My position is to exit Common Core, before investing another dime of taxpayer money. It is an issue of State sovereignty for me, and to proceed is to venture further down a road in a direction I believe is misguided. If we know anything, it is that curriculum is produced for a market place and the influence of California will be large in CCSS. Curriculum will be the next battleground for politicization of education. Given the inherent problems we are already seeing with (CCSS), it makes no sense to me to proceed with its implementation. Think about the huge investments yet to be made with your tax dollars into hardware, software, databases and IT specialists. Think about the consequences of the data collected on our students being maintained and secure. There are far too many unintended consequences to move forward with CCSS. My answer is NO to Common Core. Representative Coleman thinks that is an unfair question.