Folks, the finish line is in sight for beating one of the severe oversights limiting our local schools. I have been an outspoken critic of Common Core for years now along with criticizing the governor’s special rules and hoops for our teachers to jump through. Enough is enough; their job is too important to weigh them down with bureaucratic red-tape that doesn’t understand the great nuances that come with the territory of being an educator.

My peers in the Assembly and I have overwhelmingly voted to repeal this bogus requirement tying teacher evaluations to student scores on standardized tests. Since day one our teachers have said this is a terrible format to further their charges learning, and those of us who have been listening have finally pushed this through.

It is now up to the governor to free our teachers from this oppressive requirement and finally bring some more local influence back into our schools, where it rightfully belongs. It took us 4 years to bring this to the table and now we have 3 weeks left to kick this once and for all.

I haven’t been silent and there is hope on the horizon for our local school districts. We’ve brought record breaking funding to our schools this year in the budget and I am pioneering a new program, the Read Across Lake Shore program, to help promote the ideals of literacy and education.

We must bring the focus back onto our teachers and our students. I once again urge the governor to use his influence to pass this bill for the good of our children, the future of our country and for our teachers to finally be able to teach as they see fit.