ADOPTION OF CURRICULUM STANDARDS                                                          S.B. 826:

                                                                                                    SUMMARY OF BILL

                                                                                      REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE

Senate Bill 826 (as reported without amendment)

Sponsor:  Senator Patrick J. Colbeck

Committee:  Education

CONTENT

The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:

-- Terminate all plans, programs, efforts, and expenditures relating to the implementation of Common Core standards.

-- Prohibit the State Board of Education and the Department of Education from adopting or implementing any other national or multistate consortium standard, or the use of any assessments aligned with such a standard, that would cede control of Michigan educational standards.

-- Require the State Board and the Department to adopt for all grades State academic content standards in English language arts, math, and social science, and require the standards to be substantially the same as those used in Massachusetts during the 2008-2009 school year.

-- Require the State Board to develop academic content standards independently, instead of as part of a multistate consortium.

-- Require the board of a school district and the board of directors of a public school academy to establish a fundamental academic curriculum for its pupils and to determine the aligned instructional program for delivering that curriculum.

-- Require the Department to adopt validated State assessments of pupil achievement based on the assessment used in Massachusetts during the 2008-2009 school year.

-- Prohibit the Department from revising the assessments for five years.

-- Specify that the assessments could not require computer technology or collect certain pupil data, and would have to be available on the Department's website.

-- Prohibit the Department from implementing new standards or an assessment without legislative approval by concurrent resolution.

Proposed MCL 380.1278e & 380.1278f                                  Legislative Analyst:  Jeff Mann

FISCAL IMPACT

The bill would have a significant negative fiscal impact on the Department of Education and local school districts and boards. The Department would experience initial costs to replace the current Common Core standards with the 2008-2009 Massachusetts standards and to distribute the new standards to local districts and boards. The Department then would experience a greater cost over the next five years to develop new standards. The large costs would result from the prohibition against pooling the costs for research and development with other states. This means that Michigan would incur the total costs. The Department also would experience costs to align the State assessment with the new standards.

Local districts and boards would experience increased costs over the next six to eight years because they would have to implement two different sets of curriculum standards over that time period. Implementing new standards results in initial increased costs in the first few

years of implementation before those costs decrease and become ongoing. Since this would occur twice, districts and boards would experience the initial increased implementation costs twice. Implementing new standards also diverts planning time and professional development resources from other education initiatives a district or board otherwise would be undertaking. Since districts have different financial needs, procedures, and resources, the total costs to districts and boards over this period cannot be quantified; however, the total costs and loss of other potential initiatives would be extensive. 

Date Completed:  4-27-16                                                     Fiscal Analyst:  Cory Savino

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.