Republican State Rep. Matt Huffman of Lima is second-in-command in the House and the chair of the committee hearing the latest Common Core repeal bill. He said he hopes it can get a full chamber vote by November.
But that might be as far as the repeal attempt will go.
Republican Senate Education Chair Peggy Lehner of Kettering supports the Common Core standards and says the proposals in the House bill -- especially the plan to implement three different sets of standards in three years -- would create chaos.
“I just can’t emphasize how much, regardless of how one might feel about the Common Core itself, how truly dangerous this legislation is as written," Lehner said.
If the bill somehow got past the Senate, then it would need Gov. John Kasich’s signature. Kasich is also a supporter of the standards, though he said if the hearings on the repeal reveal serious problems, he wants to fix them. But he refutes the main argument from opponents who say that the Common Core represents a federal takeover of education.
“Curriculum is not written by Washington, it’s not written by Columbus," Kasich told reporters at a campaign stop. "It’s written by local school boards.”
The bill is currently in the Rules and Reference Committee after an earlier repeal attempt stalled in the House Education Committee.
