The Utah bill we’ve been telling you about—urging the state board to reconsider its adoption of the common standards—has died in the state legislature, according to the state department of education’s blog.
SCR13, which was passed by the state Senate last week, got no action in the Utah House before the legislative session adjourned last Thursday night. That means that it’s dead until and unless the idea is resurrected in another session.
The soonest that could happen, according to an education department spokeswoman, is during an “interim” session this spring or summer. If it doesn’t crop up then, the next possible juncture for action is during the legislature’s next session, which begins in January 2013.
If you’ve missed the kerfuffle that Utah’s resolution caused, see my blog post earlier today for a history and links to other posts about it.
The dustup over the common core in Utah is interesting, in part, because it has reached far enough to include both Gov. Gary Herbert and state schools chief Larry K. Shumway. Shumway, a common-standards advocate, wrote a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, that aimed to clarify that the state was in charge of its own standards. Gov. Herbert, who has been a common core supporter, was named in the state Senate’s anti-common-core resolution: It asked, on behalf of the legislature and the governor, for a state board reconsideration.
State board of education member Kim Burningham speculates about the reasons for the governor’s apparent change of heart in a post on the department’s blog.