The House Education Committee rejected anti-Common Core legislation Wednesday, likely dealing a death blow to its chances of becoming law during this session.
Senate Bill 167, sponsored by Sen. William Ligon, R-Brunswick, would have blocked Georgia from testing students on material tied to any set of national academic standards, including Common Core.
Some or all of the legislation could be attached to a bill that has already passed one chamber of the Legislature, but after the committee voted 13-5 against it, Ligon said he would not try to move forward with it.
The likely death of SB 167 doesn’t mean Georgia won’t eventually leave Common Core, which has drawn opposition from tea party activists as a federal intrusion into state control of public education.
Gov. Nathan Deal has ordered the state Board of Education to conduct a review of the standards, and that review is expected to be completed this fall — after Deal faces a pair of Republican rivals in the gubernatorial primary.
Deal and the state board, whose members are appointed by the governor, have said they support Common Core. That support puts Deal in a tight political bind as he battles for re-election.
One of Deal’s primary opponents, Dalton Mayor David Pennington, opposes Common Core. The other, Georgia Superintendent John Barge, supports Common Core and blasted SB 167 as a threat to as much as $1 billion in federal education funding.
Two important GOP constituencies — anti-Common Core tea party activists and pro-Common Core business interests — are on opposite sides of the debate.
Deal himself has seemed torn on the issue. Even after ordering the state board to review Common Core to determine if the national academic standards are appropriate for Georgia, he backed Ligon’s legislation, which would essentially make adherence to Common Core meaningless. His support of SB 167 was seen as a big boost to its prospects, given that Deal’s fellow Republicans have majorities in both the House and the Senate.
But the seeds of SB 167’s defeat were sown Tuesday evening, as legislators, lobbyists and education group officials worked on a substitute bill that significantly altered the most bitterly opposed sections of the bill, including the testing provision and another which would not allow local districts to essentially opt out of Common Core until reviews of the standards are completed.
Ligon held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to announce his opposition to that substitute legislation.
“The bill needs to make it clear that Georgia will not participate in nationalized standards,” he said.
Tanya Ditty, state director of the Concerned Women for America — described on its website as a coalition of conservative women which promotes biblical values and family traditions — said she joined Ligon in opposing the substitute legislation.
“I know he worked in good faith,” she said. “The next thing we know, we have this gutted version of the bill. I’m disappointed.”
Teri Sasseville of Fairburn said Common Core opponents will remember what happened on SB 167 come election time.
“I think Common Core is a big issue, and it’s going to be a litmus test issue for the people of Georgia,” she said.
Passage of SB 167 would likely have meant the development of a new set of standards, the third set to be used in Georgia over the past 10 years. New standards means new curriculum and new teaching methods.
Supporters of Common Core said the standards will allow students to get a deeper understanding of academic material and will harmonize when students across the country are exposed to that material.
Because of Ligon’s opposition, Education Committee members did not consider the substitute and instead voted on an altered version of Ligon’s original legislation.
“It was very well vetted, and the people have spoken through their representatives,” said Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth.
Tracey-Ann Nelson, director of government relations for the Georgia Association of Educators — one of the many education groups that opposed SB 167 — said the bill’s defeat is good for education.
“Educators can feel a level of comfort that the hard work they’ve been doing currently will continue,” she said.
Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan, the Austell Democrat who is running for state superintendent, claimed credit for defeating SB 167 based on the Education Committee taking a second vote on Ligon’s bill at her recommendation.
“Children and parents across Georgia can claim a victory today,” she said in a press release trumpeting the vote.
Business interests were also happy about SB 167’s demise.
“The Chamber thanks the members of the House Education Committee for listening to the concerns of educators, parents, local school boards and most importantly, our students,” said Chris Clark, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
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