Senator Bonacic’s Statement on Common Core

Parents, teachers, administrators and educational professionals in my district, and throughout New York State, have raised grave concerns over the flawed roll-out of the Common Core Learning Standards.

Unless the Board of Regents acts to alleviate these concerns, they must delay the use of Common Core tests for high-stakes decisions about teachers, principals and students for a minimum of two years.  During this time, the State Education Department should continue to develop curricula aligned with higher standards and assist local school districts in developing their own curricula so teachers can successfully implement higher learning standards and help students reach their maximum potential.

I continue to support the goals of an improved education curriculum that increases standards and ensures that students are college and career ready.  It is my belief that while the implementation of the Common Core may have been well intended, it has been poorly executed. 

In addition, serious concerns have been raised about the ability of unauthorized third-parties to access personally identifiable information of students, teachers and principals that will be collected on the state-wide Education Data Portal.  Therefore, I call for the Regents to delay operation of the Education Data Portal for at least one year.

In the end, our goal must continue to be the development of higher learning standards in the best interest of our students and their futures.