School Flex Bill Ineffective Without Repeal of Common Core

Grassroots Groups Concerned About Losing Alabama's Most Effective Education Programs

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., March 11, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alabama Legislature may be facing a line of storms in the aftermath of approving a school flexibility bill. The education community is upset that the Legislature added tax credits, which they fear will hurt public schools.  Conservative grassroots organizations are concerned that the school flex bill binds Alabama to Common Core with a backdoor approach at the same time their members are asking the Legislature to repeal Common Core.  They are concerned about losing Alabama's most popular and effective education programs, and revealed today that the Alabama Department of Education diverted fifty million dollars without legislative authorization from these two programs, the Alabama Reading and Math Initiatives, to pay for Common Core.

Ken Freeman, Chair of the Alliance for Citizens Rights, stated:  "The Alabama Reading and Math Initiatives are two of the most successful and innovative programs in Alabama education.  We would like to see these continue but they cannot under Common Core, which takes away opportunities for flexibility and innovation and locks in, without possibility of change, the Common Core curriculum."   

Sharon Sewell, Director of Alabamians for Excellence in Education, added:  "The reading and math initiatives that have moved the needle forward for Alabama education no longer exist except on paper.  The money has been used for purposes other than those intended by the Legislature.  No Legislator shown this information was aware that this had happened.  That is fifty million of our tax dollars taken from two proven, very successful programs and used for an unproven and un-piloted process known as Common Core or, as some choose to call it, College and Career Readiness."

Becky Gerritson, founder and president of the Wetumpka Tea Party, stated: "Common Core takes away control over education policy from parents, teachers and the state and gives it to entities outside Alabama. Alabama is a strong Tenth Amendment state and I don't believe Alabamians will support this.  We urge the Legislature to vote for SB 190 and HB 254 and help Alabama take back control of education."

Co-signed by: Alabama Federation of Republican Women, Alabamians for Excellence in Education, Alabama Patriots, Alabama Defenders, Alliance for Citizens Rights, Allied Women, Calhoun County Rainy Day Patriots, Calhoun Tea Party Patriots, Common Sense Campaign, Common Sense Tea Party Patriots of Covington County, Conservative Christians of Alabama, Eagle Forum, Ft. Mitchell Patriots, Greenville Tea Party, Madison Institute, Montgomery TEA Party, Patriots of Liberty Tea Party, Smart Girl Politics, Wetumpka Tea Party

SOURCE Alabama Federation of Republican Women