12-19-13 thiesfeldt-common core

The chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Common Core Standards says Democrats on the committee politicized the process and recommendations made by the committee.  Republican state representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt of Fond du lac says the recommendations approved on party line votes emphasize the importance of Wisconsin-based standards and reaffirm local control.   Thiesfeldt says the committee’s review of the standards affirmed his skepticism.  "Not so much that I think that the standards themselves are a problem but where the standards are coming from,"  Thiesfeldt told WFDL news.  "There is some real serious belief and I think its well-founded that this is potentially going to take a great deal of local control of education, not just in Fond du Lac but across the state and across the nation, away and we are essentially federalizing our approach to education."   Thiesfeldt says Republican lawmakers are already crafting legislation in response

to committee recommendations.