The State Assembly Republican conference is pushing for passage of a Common Core bill that they refer to as the APPLE Plan. WBFO'S Eileen Buckley says members of the Assembly Minority Conference held a news conference in Albany Tuesday to discuss their bill.
"This is a really good fix to Common Core," said Republican Assembly woman Jane Corwin of Clarence.
The APPLE plan stands for Achieving Pupil Preparedness and Launching Excellence. Corwin calls the republican plan a great bill and claims it has has bipartisan support.
"And it is based on comments made through out the state from parents, administrators, students. This is the solution we are looking for and this is what we should be voting for on the floor of the Assembly," said Corwin.
Among the items in this proposed bill include stopping the rushed implementation of the Common Core standards, providing funding for professional development for teachers and reducing the over-reliance on student testing.
Republican Assemblyman Ray Walters of Williamsville said the APPLE plan tackles many concerns raised statewide over the the controversial Learning Standards.
"We have legislation that will address, most if not all the all of the concerns regarding the implementation of Common Core. That's the direction we need to go in," said Walters.
On Monday night Assembly democrats huddled in private to discussion their version of the Common Core bill. That plan would place a two-year moratorium on the standards to delay student testing used to evaluate teachers. But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says their bill still needed tweaking. Republicans say the democratic plan is only a "stop-gap" measure.