Rep. Frey Helps Republicans Force Public Hearing on Common Core, Teacher Evaluations

HARTFORD – State Representative John Frey (R-111, Ridgefield) joined with 50 of his House Republican colleagues on Wednesday in signing a petition forcing the legislature’s Education Committee to hold public hearings on the Common Core standards and teacher evaluations.

Until now, the Democratic leadership of the committee had refused to take up any bills regarding these two hot topics. The 51 Republican legislators utilized a rarely-used rule that forces committees to raise a bill if a 51-signature petition is received by a certain deadline, which in this case was Wednesday at 5:00pm.

“After hearing from countless students, parents, educators and a host of other concerned parties about how upset they are over the Common Core and this teacher evaluation program, we really had no other option,” said Rep. Frey, following the announcement. “Every aspect of these programs has occurred behind closed doors without input from those who it will affect most – it is time they had their say.”

The implementation of the Common Core State Standards for students and the new evaluation measures for teachers has caused significant anxiety for a large number of people across Connecticut. Common Core has never been voted upon by the legislature; rather, it was adopted by the State Department of Education by regulation.  "Paperwork, data collection (including data sharing) and assessments have unfortunately pushed educators farther away the fundamentals of teaching," Rep. Frey said.

The two bills that will be raised under Joint Rule 11 are a House Republican Caucus proposal regarding the acceptance of the latest revisions to the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) teacher evaluations, and a bill from Representative Marilyn Giuliano (R-23) that would place a moratorium on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards pending a public hearing and investigation by the State Department of Education on the standards’ potential impact.

“Ridgefield’s schools already have an established record of excellence,” Rep. Frey added. “The Common Core and teacher evaluations have been implemented through a top-down process with no input from any of the real stakeholders. We need to make sure that these new initiatives do not hurt our established educational processes that have been working perfectly thus far. It is well past time that this gets discussed openly and freely. Put simply, I prefer fewer regulations and leave as many decisions as possible to those who best know their communities.  In this case, the Ridgefield Board of Education."

Under Rule 11, upon receiving the signed petitions, the Legislative Commissioners' Office will prepare the requested bills and forward them to the House clerk for processing and referral to the Education Committee, who will then begin the process toward holding the public hearing. It is unclear as of today when the hearings will be held.

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State Rep. John Frey represents the 111th District in Ridgefield. Rep. Frey serves as the Minority Whip, and sits on the Legislature’s Finance, Revenue, & Bonding Committee, the Banks Committee, and the Aging Committee.