Alabama House of Representatives Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) appeared on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” on Friday, speaking about the key issues legislators in his chamber will have on their plate when they return from spring break next week.
With the Senate just before the legislative break having passed SB 119, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh’s (R-Anniston) bill to eliminate Common Core in the state, the hot-button issue now goes to the House. This was the first topic McCutcheon discussed with host Don Dailey.
After stipulating that he had not yet analyzed the amended version of the legislation that the Senate passed, the speaker said, “We’ll be going over that over the weekend.”
“I think at the end of the day, we need to be considerate of the curriculum and the core subjects that are being taught,” McCutcheon continued. “And we need to make sure that we’re listening to the business community, as well as… our education community. I’m looking forward to bringing those people to the table so we can talk about the issue. I think it’s important.”
Dailey then highlighted that the business community has expressed concerns with replacing Common Core and asked McCutcheon if he wanted to hear those concerns.
“Yes, I do,” the speaker replied. “Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.”
The host then asked McCutcheon if he agrees with Marsh’s concerns about Alabama’s test scores, reading and math performance benchmarks and national educational rankings not improving under Common Core.
“Well, there’s no doubt about the work that Senator Marsh has done bringing the education professionals around the state together [working on comprehensive education reform],” McCutcheon advised. “And this has been going on now for over a year. So, because of all of that information that’s being gathered, I think his concerns are valid. And I think there are some things we need to look at.”
He used the example of a lack of qualified math and science teachers in certain areas of the state to say, “These are things that we really need to take a serious look at.”
“And here we are with a new legislature, we’ve got four years to work,” McCutcheon continued. “And I think we need to make education a key focus and let’s roll up our sleeves and go to work on it.”
The speaker later explained that there was a lot of “confusion” and frustration amongst educators when they had to adjust their lesson plans to fit Common Core (especially in math), but now, many have “evolved” their teaching practices in the classroom.
However, McCutcheon said the bottom line is that even if teachers are “comfortable” with Common Core at this point, the learning outcomes need to improve for their students.
He added that “a good discussion on the governance” of the state’s education system, starting on the local levels, is also needed.
Watch, starting at 39:20:
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
