Lawmakers Tread Cautiously Around Common Core Repeal

Lawmakers described it as an “epiphany.”

Just a few hours before members of a House panel were to open debate Wednesday on Common Core for the year, they abruptly changed course.

On the agenda was a bill,
HB 3, that could give the legislature more

 say over the controversial education standards. 
Its sponsor, Rep. John Forgety (R-Athens)
, gave little explanation why he’d decided not to push it forward.

“I’m of the opinion that we need to end Common Core in a constructive — not a destructive — manner,” he said.

Forgety
was a little more forthcoming after the committee meeting. He said talks are under way with Gov
. Bill Haslam’s
administration on a plan to review the standards.

The governor says the job should be left to the experts — teachers and other educators.

“And I’m about that,” Forgety
said. “As far as I’m concerned, if legislation is not needed, that’s fine.”

Other lawmakers may not feel the same as Forgety. Many have been champing at the bit to take on Common Core, especially as it’s grown more unpopular with parents, teachers and conservative activists.

But at least for a little while, Haslam seems to have reined them in.