Morgan Watkins

@morganwatkins26

With unanimous support Friday, the Kentucky Senate sent its No. 1 priority — a major education measure that would overhaul the Common Core academic standards — to the House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 1 didn't make it to the governor's desk last year, but its fate looks brighter this time around. Republicans now control the House, and the legislation received bipartisan support from state senators on Friday.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Sen. Mike Wilson of Bowling Green, emphasized the amount of cooperation that went into shaping this legislation. School board representatives, state officials and teachers all helped improve this proposal, he said.

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For example, a controversial provision letting high schoolers take foreign language classes or courses in fields like computer technology to fulfill their arts requirement for graduation was jettisoned from the final version of Senate Bill 1.

Wilson acknowledged his role in facilitating the development of this legislation. "But it has fingerprints from everyone that are stakeholders in our education system," he told his fellow senators Friday morning.

If it becomes law this year, Senate Bill 1 will institute significant education reforms in Kentucky. It calls for advisory panels and committees to review the state's standards for the basic things students are expected to know at different grade levels. They would review the standards for science, math, social studies, and language arts and writing using a staggered process.

Wilson has said this effectively would "repeal" the Common Core standards for English language arts and math that the state adopted several years ago. Gov. Matt Bevin has repeatedly said he wants to repeal Common Core, which a number of other states have adopted.

The bill also would give local school districts more control over intervening in low-performing schools and allow them to create their own teacher evaluation systems. Those evaluations wouldn't have to be reported to the state government, either.

"It's not perfect," Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said Friday of Senate Bill 1. But he praised the way Wilson welcomed public input on the proposed reforms and actually listened to the suggestions people provided.

Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, also commended Wilson's "collaborative, contemplative, bipartisan and thoughtful approach."

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, noted the significance of Senate Bill 1 after it was approved Friday morning.

"There may not be any more major piece of policy that you could adopt when it affects the education system, which is about 55 percent of our budget," Stivers said. "When you have a piece of policy like that — that had Democrat and Republican support that was unanimous — that says a lot about the bill and what Sen. Wilson has done."

Contact reporter Morgan Watkins at (502) 875-5136 or mwatkins@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @morganwatkins26.

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