Cobb Common Core Foes Stay on Attack

The Cobb Board of Education wasn't scheduled to revisit the Common Core mathematics textbooks controversy Thursday night. 

But opponents of the new academic guidelines -- as well as a few supporters, mostly teachers -- made sure the matter remained on the front burner. 

Before the school board dug into its business agenda, some of the same foes of Common Core restated many of the same arguments that they first raised to the Cobb school board, which voted 4-3 in April against buying new math books designed to the standards.

And they were joined by a visible local political figure who's long railed about the long reach of Washington. 

"The fact of the matter is, this is a federal program and is driven by money concerns," former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a Republican who is seeking to regain his Marietta-based seat, told the board during a public comment period. 

Barr, who explained that "I've seen the jaws of the federal Leviathan close up," said imposition of the Common Core would "increase federal control and reduce your and our control of education of our students."

(Barr was the author of a noted piece of federal legislation, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, that was invalidated this week by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Barr said Wednesday that while he defends the traditional definition of marriage, he acknowledges now that a federal law violates state powers.)

The Common Core standards -- which would establish general academic baselines in math and English but leave curriculum to the states -- were adopted in Georgia in 2010 with the approval of then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican.

The standards were created at the behest of the bipartisan National Governors Association and have been adopted in 44 states. No federal legislation or action was involved.

But lawmakers in several states, including Georgia, are vowing to opt out of Common Core following pressure from Republican and Tea Party interests.

Barr's comments come a week after the Georgia Republican Partyvoted for a resolution denouncing the Common Core and the leading legislative foe of the standards, Republican Rep. Bill Ligon of Brunswick, held a rally in Marietta.

Earlier this week in West Cobb, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal defended the standards. 

Opponents thanked the four Cobb board members who voted against the textbooks and urged them not to reconsider (although the matter could come up again in July).

Some said the textbooks leave out key instructional material and others complained that one-size-fits-all measurements would ill-serve students. 

"The children are the ones who are going to pay the price if you don't get it right," Cobb resident Joyce Shumacher told the board. 

But several Cobb educators spoke in favor of the textbooks and said the board's decision is hurting their ability to teach. The 2013-14 academic year in Cobb begins Aug. 7.

"You have to understand what these kids are going to be up against with teachers who don't have the resources," said Carol Lawrence, a math teacher at Dickerson Middle School in East Cobb. 

Said one retired Cobb teacher: "Common Core has become a dirty word and it shouldn't be."

Board chairman Randy Scamihorn, who voted against the math textbooks and has requested resource alternative proposals, was the only board member to respond Thursday. 

"We are not going to leave our teachers and students in the lurch," said Scamihorn, a retired Cobb teacher and principal. "We will find a solution."