A summary of the Senate Education Commitee hearings on Common Core

On September 19 and September 20, the State Senate Education committee held two days of public hearings on Common Core. I did not have the time to set through ten hours of video of common core hearings and had no desire to do so, but I posted the links to the videos of the hearings and invited anyone who could watch it and notate where in the video the best parts where to do so, and I said I would post their work.

Thanks to Eric Holcombe who blogs at Blount County Public Record for doing a bang-up job of  doing two write-ups on the hearings and notifying me of his post.  He did one post on who the lead speakers are in opposition to common core and one post on the proponents of Common Core.  He tells you who each of the speakers are and their credentials and associations and he summarized their testimony. You still have to skim the hearing to find the proponents but with his summary you know who you are looking for. For the opponents he list the time stamp, making it real easy to go to that point in the video and watch that testimony.

Be aware that  Eric has a bias opposed to Common Core. Nevertheless, his post on these hearings are informative and he make the hearings much more accessible.

To watch the Senate Education Committee hearings, follow the following links:
The September 19th hearing is a review of the standards and gets quit boring.
The September 20th hearing is where all of the guest experts address the committee.

To view Eric Holcombe's post featuring the proponents, follow this link, "Common Core is bought and paid for."
To view Eric Holcombe's post featuring the opponents, follow this link, "The Common Core Opponents at the 'fact-finding' hearing."

Senator Gresham needs to be commended for setting the tone of the hearing by making it clear that she would not tolerate cheering or booing or emotional outburst. This hearings were dignified and informative and serious. If you watch these hearing you will have a balanced view of the primary arguments of  both sides. While some conspiracy theory nuts have jumped on the opposition band wagon, there are responsible people with legitimate concerns about Common Core. While I still think that Common Core is a positive step forward to improve education and think that the status quo in education is not acceptable, the opponents have legitimate concerns.  There are good people on both sides of the issue.

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