Missouri Bill to Withdraw from Common Core Passes to Governors Deskselfnews Post House Bill 1490 (HB1490) passed through the state senate on May 1 by a 24-8 margin. It had previously passed the house by a 131-12 vote. Since the Senate version differed from the House version, the House had an opportunity to accept the amendments offered by the Senate, but refused. That sent the bill to a joint conference committee, where members of both chambers worked out the differences in the bill and finalized the version going to the governor. A spokesman for Rep. Bahr, the bills chief sponsor, said, The conference was requested by the floor leader since the house passed a four page bill and the senate sent back a 44 page version. He did not feel like there would be enough time for all 150 house reps to pour over all of the new information in the bill to pass it speedily and also doing their duty. The final version of the bill includes important steps to re-establish local control of education and end involvement with Common Core in the state. HB1490 states that [each] local school board shall be responsible for the approval and adoption of curriculum used by the school district. It also would sanction work groups composed of education professionals to develop and recommend academic performance standards which would ultimately be used to replace Common Core by the 2016-2017 school year. The goal is to give the schools that have invested a lot of time preparing for what Governor Nixon obligated them to a graceful way out, while stopping CC in the long run, Ron Calzone of Missouri First said about the legislation. Missouri is leading the resistance to Common Core, unlike other states such as Indiana, which passed a bill to opt-out of the Core, while implementing a state requirement to use virtually the same federal standards in order to continue receiving federal funding. Largely unbeknownst to the American public, Common Core gives the feds the power to collect all kinds of data from children including Social Security numbers, blood type, records of school attendance, supposed learning disabilities, religious affiliation, disciplinary records, parents income information. The curriculum also eschews classic literature in favor of drab, government technical manuals. HB1490 promotes decentralized government and takes control from unaccountable federal bureaucrats and puts it back into the hands of the people. Common Cores proponents deceptively claim that the curriculum is not the handiwork of federal bureaucrats because it wasconceived by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). However, he NGA hasreceived tens of millions in taxpayer cash from the federal government over the course of many years. TAKE ACTION Please visit the TenthAmendmentCenter.com where this article first appeared. 