Senate Bill 2285

AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT BEGINNING WITH THE 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION SHALL REPLACE THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS WITH THE ELA STANDARDS IN PLACE IN SEVERAL STATES; TO PROVIDE THAT THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI SHALL RETAIN SOLE CONTROL OVER THE DEVELOPMENT, ESTABLISHMENT AND REVISION OF CURRICULUM STANDARDS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. The Mississippi College and Career-Ready Standards, formerly known as Common Core State Standards, shall be replaced beginning with the 2020-2021 school year. The State Board of Education shall adopt for Mississippi public schools the ELA Standards in place in 2010 (prior to Common Core adoption) from any of the following states which were labeled as clearly superior to the Common Core Standards in the Thomas B. Fordham Publication entitled The State of the State Standards and the Common Core in 2010: California, Indiana, Massachusetts, Texas, or the 2010 Massachusetts ELA draft standards. The State Board of Education shall adopt for Mississippi public schools the mathematics standards in place in 2010 from either the States of California, Florida, Indiana or Massachusetts. These standards are free of charge in the public domain for the districts to simply copy and implement. The aforementioned state standards based on the Fordham Study exceed the Common Core Standards.

No curriculum standards developed outside the State of Mississippi, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science Standards, the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, the National Health Education Standards, and the National Sexuality Education Standards, and no standards that use the same model frameworks as such standards developed primarily by entities outside the State of Mississippi with the exception of the mathematics standards in place in 2010 (prior to Common Core) in California, Indiana, Florida and Massachusetts and the English Language Arts (ELA) Standards in place in 2010 in Texas, California, Indiana and Massachusetts, or the 2010 Massachusetts ELA draft standards may be adopted or implemented without public hearings held in each congressional district, an open comment period, and open hearings before a joint committee composed of the House Education Committee and Senate Education Committee, followed by an act of the Legislature.

The State of Mississippi shall retain sole control over the development, establishment and revision of curriculum standards. Neither the State Board of Education nor any other state education entity, nor any state official, may join any consortium or any other organization when participation in that consortium or organization would cede any measure of control over any aspect of Mississippi public education to entities outside the state, nor may any such person or entity enter into any agreement, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or contract with any federal agency or private entity which in any way cedes or limits state discretion of control over the development, or revision of the Mississippi Curriculum Standards and related student assessments, including, but not limited to, agreements, MOUs and contracts in exchange for funding for public schools and programs.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2020.