Local superintendent votes no on common core

The Idaho Education Task Force voted yes for Common Core standards, minus one member from eastern Idaho.

Madison County District Superintendent Geoffrey Thomas was the only one to vote no out of 31 members.

He is against the standards for numerous reasons. He said a private corporation in New York City wrote the standards, none of whom are teachers.

“Let’s restore the credibility of teachers to teach. I don’t need a corporation in New York City to tell me what to teach to my children, and these are my children in the district as well as other people’s children,” he said.

He also said textbooks are not up to date because of the Common Core standards. Thomas said the standards currently only target English and mathematics. There is no focus on science or history. Another issue is the pressure placed on teachers for standardized testing.

“Teachers will be forced to teach to the test because they want their students to do well,” he said.

Thomas said another reason he is against Common Core is because of the money the district has to pay out of pocket to train teachers to meet the standards. He said they finally received a check for $15,000 this year.

Another difficulty he said the district will face is the transition to Common Core standards. He said a lot of teachers are not used to the style of teaching Common Core requires.