Here are some highlights from the Union Leader’s coverage of yesterday’s House Education Committee hearing on Rep. David Murotake’s HB 1432, one of the “5 Bad Bills” aimed at rolling back the Common Core in New Hampshire.

Board of Education Chairman Tom Raffio urged the committee to kill Murotake’s bill and two others designed to either delay or terminate the state’s participation in the national initiative, warning that such measures could cost the state $100 million in federal funding and a waiver exempting it from requirements of the No Child Left Behind law.

“This bill can potentially really damage public education in New Hampshire,” he said.

Scott McGilvray, president of the National Education Association in New Hampshire (NEA-NH), with 16,000 members, said opponents of Common Core should be working to improve the program, not upend it.

“This bill, along with many others introduced this legislative session, does not bring any solutions to what we should all be discussing,” he said, “which is setting high standards for our students and preparing them for a 21st education and career.”

….

Democratic Rep. Mary Heath of Manchester, retired dean of education at Southern New Hampshire University and a former deputy commissioner for the Department of Education, reminded lawmakers that states are required by law to administer a standardized test each year to selected grades.

The New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), which has been used, will not be available in 2015 and beyond.

“This bill says that for the next two years, contrary to federal law and jeopardizing millions of federal education funds, there will be no summative assessment of any kind given in New Hampshire,” she said. “It does not just prohibit the Smarter Balance; it prohibits any annual test at all … This bill will turn education back 30 years.”

Rep. Murotake is quoted as saying, “I believe the Common Core State Standards should move forward” but I wonder if his fingers were crossed behind his back.  He’s a co-sponsor on HB 1508 to end the Common Core and the test in New Hampshire.

There will be a subcommittee work session on the bill at 9:00am on February 18 in LOB 207.