New GOP-appointed commission could suggest what standards are taught in NC schools
Updated April 27 with House passing bill.
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina want more say on what’s taught in public schools, including potentially revising the state’s controversial new social studies standards.
The N.C. House backed a bill on Thursday that would create a new commission appointed mainly by lawmakers that would recommend the standards that would be taught in each K-12 subject. One of the first jobs of the new Standards Advisory Commission would be to review the recently adopted social studies standards.
“Educating children by our Constitution is placed at the feet of this body right here, the North Carolina General Assembly,” said Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor. “It’s our responsibility and we shouldn’t shrug from that responsibility.”
The 71-43 vote went largely along party lines. All the Republicans voted for the bill and all but two Democrats opposed the legislation.
Most Democratic lawmakers questioned what they said are GOP efforts to take over setting what’s taught in schools.
“I believe this commission is just injecting politics into a process that should be done by people who are professional educators who know what they are doing,” said Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Standards setting process
Currently, the state Department of Public Instruction recommends to the State Board of Education what concepts to include in the Standard Course of Study. The state board then adopts the standards for each subject.
DPI is leading teams that are currently working on new science standards and new healthful living standards. DPI also convened the teams that recommended the new social studies standards adopted in 2021.
The standards had split the state board’s Democratic and Republican members. The board’s Democratic members said they were more inclusive, while the GOP members said they were too negative about American history.
House Republicans have tried multiple times in the past two years to block the standards from being implemented.
Under House Bill 756, the Standards Advisory Commission would be formed to recommend the standards for each subject to the state board. The bill directs the commission to recommend potential changes to the social studies standards to the state board by Jan. 1, 2025.
Torbett said there’s precedent for the commission because one was formed by lawmakers to suggest changes to the Common Core standards that were used in math and English classes.
Lawmakers would pick commission
Originally, the Republican-led General Assembly would appointed all of 16 of the commission’s voting members. Torbett amended the bill on Thursday to have 18 appointed members: six each for the House, Senate and governor.
The commission would be required to include specific categories such as superintendents, principals, teachers, curriculum specialists, parents, business members and “at-large” members. They’d be chosen for four-year terms.
“It makes a more rounded approach to what our kids are going to be learning and it rests more heavily, more balanced on outside of the educational complex and more with the business community and parents and teachers,” Torbett said.
The state board would have to either approve the commission’s recommendations without making major changes or reject them. If they are rejected, the state board would have to give the commission reasons, as well as another chance to revise the recommendations.
The state board could develop the standards itself only after rejecting the commission’s recommendations a second time.
Legislative veto?
But the bill says any changes in standards or content adopted by the state board would have to be presented to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee. The changes would be blocked if legislation is filed within 30 days to delay the changes.
The state board’s changes wouldn’t be go into effect until either the bill challenging them is rejected or the legislative session ends. von Haefen says this will further erode the state board’s Constitutional authority.
“This essentially gives the General Assembly a veto over changes to the Standard Course of Study,” von Haefen said. “ It gives a single member the ability to greatly delay a change to the Standard Course of Study.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2023 at 3:15 PM.
