Today, at a press conference in Albany, Assemblyman Karl Brabenec (R,C,I-Deerpark) and his colleagues in the New York State Assembly Minority Conference unveiled their solution to the myriad problems surrounding Common Core. The New York State Department of Education has come under fire the past few years over their botched implementation of Common Core and refusal to take constructive criticism. The Achieving Pupil Preparedness & Launching Excellence (APPLE) Plan, created with direct input from hundreds of concerned parents, teachers and administrators, calls for a moratorium on Common Core for two years and is co-sponsored by Brabenec.

“Common Core is broken. It’s as simple as that. I know I’m not alone when I say that I have watched my children needlessly struggle for far too long,” said Brabenec. “Overly stressful standardized testing, curriculums that aren’t age appropriate, and an insane lack of funding are putting too much stress on our school systems. My colleagues and I have a bold, yet realistic plan to fix the failed policies of the State Education Department, and it is my hope that we can work together, for the sake of our kids, to fix this calamity.”

On top of calling for a delay of Common Core, the APPLE Plan would require a comprehensive review of the standards be completed by an independent, blue-ribbon panel of educators. If deemed acceptable after the panel’s review, the standards would then be phased in on a grade-by-grade level starting in first grade. If the panel decides the national Common Core standards are inappropriate for New York State’s children, they would be done away with and replaced by a NYS curriculum they would help craft. On top of that, the APPLE Plan would eliminate the 2010 GEA school funding cuts, approve developmentally-appropriate curriculum, and severely restrict data mining of our children’s personal information.