CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The bill that would repeal the Common Core education standards in West Virginia was sent to a subcommittee by state Senate Education Committee chairman Dave Sypolt on Monday.
Sypolt (R-Preston) said the subcommittee will study the bill and report it to the full committee in the near future. Before Monday’s move, Sypolt allowed several stakeholders to speak including a student from Kenova Elementary School.
“The math does not explain itself clearly so that we can fully understand how we are to solve the problems. I bet if you go ask the people in my math class they would say, yes, this Common Core that you put in West Virginia is confusing,” the young girl said.
State School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano, who has been on the job for five months, asked the committee to allow him the opportunity to review the standards and deal with the problems particularly in math areas.
“Just let me have than opportunity to do that, working with our state board and our teachers, and then we can put our stamp on it and say, ‘These are the West Virginia college and career standards,'” Martirano said.
House of Delegates Speaker Tim Armstead said Monday on MetroNews “Talkline” the House wants to fix Common Core but state education officials must be willing to listen.
“We need to stop. We need to go back and re-establish these standards. We need to have parental and teacher and principal input into these,” Armstead said. “That’s what we’ve done with this bill. We didn’t come in and set an entirely new standard. We didn’t do that.”
State School Board member Beverly Kingery, a former superintendent of Nicholas County schools where she worked with teachers on the standards, also asked Senate Education Committee members for more time.
“Perhaps we could work an amendment that we could all live with for a year and then if things aren’t better and people aren’t more satisfied, we could have public meetings within the year, Then I would give you my blessings to do what you think is needed to do,” Kingery said.
The House approved the repeal bill on a 74-19 vote Saturday.