Posted: 5:07 p.m. Friday, July 18, 2014

Derickson: “Common Core is not a done issue”

By Michael D. Pitman

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN —

When the Ohio General Assembly resumes session later in the fall, the Common Core Standards Initiative will be one of the issues discussed, Rep. Tim Derickson told the Middletown Rotary Club earlier this week.

“Common Core is not a done issue,” the Hanover Twp. Republican said during a speech at the Middletown Area Senior Citizens Center on Tuesday. “We’re talking about it, and I do anticipate changes.”

Derickson, who represents the 53rd Ohio House District, said he isn’t certain what those changes could be, but doesn’t believe the state will try to get rid of Common Core, an educational initiative that has extremely strong supporters and equally strong opponents. It outlines what students should know in English and math at the end of each year from kindergarten through their senior year of high school.

“Here’s the dilemma that we face; even if you don’t like Common Core, there’s a small price tag of $400 million that the state took when accepting Race to the Top, Common Core-related dollars,” Derickson said. “That money’s spent, and it’s not very easy to find $400 million if you did away with Common Core.”

Derickson said he believes there is some common ground that can be reached between proponents and opponents.

Nearly all states initially adopted the Common Core State Standards, and about dozen states are looking to opt out via legislation. Indiana has formally withdrawn, and a handful of states never accepted the initiative. Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta, introduced legislation in November that calls for prohibiting the State Education Board from adopting and the Department of Education from implementing the Common Core Standards. It has not yet received a hearing in the House Education Committee

Derickson said he believes folks at the local level will likely be incorporated into the discussion because they “are probably as capable, if not more so, to determine the standards of what the students need to learn by than anybody.”

Calendar day bills

The General Assembly is also expected to support two bills that will recognize rare diseases and Summer Freedom.

Derickson is the joint sponsor in both bills that will mark the last day in February as “Rare Disease Day” and June 20 as “Freedom Summer Day” in the state.

“There’s always a story behind a calendar day bill,” Derickson said.

One of the stories behind the “Rare Disease Day” bill is with Derickson’s sister, Joy Lynn Derickson, who died in the 1970s after suffering with cystic fibrosis.

“And cystic fibrosis is just one. There are many more rare diseases folks would like to bring more attention to in hopes to find some money for research,” Derickson said.

“Freedom Summer Day” recognizes the efforts done in Oxford to train volunteers to head to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to register black men and women to vote. Training happened on the Western College for Women campus, which is now Miami University’s Western Campus.

“It changed civil rights as we now it here in the country,” Derickson said.