Tennessee Sen. Dolores Gresham took issue with a media report saying she had withdrawn her opposition to Common Core education standards. She and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, have sponsored legislation to repeal and replace the standards.
Gresham , R-Somerville, said she supports Senate Bill 4, which would create the Tennessee Standards Commission and would require “severing our ties with the current Common Core Standards.”
“Let there be no mistake about it, many of us who take issue with Common Core are very much in favor of having the highest standards for our students,” she said in a statement. … “My commitment has not changed and continues to be fostered by my conversations with teachers who tell me that having higher standards and strategies have set us on the right path. I believe them.”
Bell said that “all the teachers and parents I’ve spoken with are in universal agreement that we need to keep higher standards.”
He added: “I’m still firm in my resolve to see Tennessee pull out of Common Core and develop our own high standards. I believe the majority of my constituents don’t want to be part of a national/federal movement that could one day replace local and state control.”
Send items for Political Notebook to lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com or jwalton@timesfreepress.com.