As a follow-up to an earlier article the deadline to sign letters circulating in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate asking for an appropriations rider to block further federal overreach in pushing the Common Core standards and assessments on states was last week. Congressman Steve King (R-IA) and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released the names of those who signed along with the final letter.
Here are the signed letters: House version and Senate version.
Here are the names of those who signed.
Senators Grassley, Roberts, Inhofe, Fischer, Isakson, Daines, Cruz, Lee, Purdue, Enzi, Barrasso, Sessions, Vitter
Representatives King, Babin, Benishek, Blackburn, Blum, Byrne, Crawford, Jeff Duncan, Forbes, Franks, Garrett, Gibbs, Gohmert, Gosar, Grothman, Hartzler, Hensarling, Huelskamp, Hultgren, Jenkins, Johnson, Walter B. Jones, Kelly, Latta, Massie, Jeff Miller, Olson, Pompeo, Posey, Rohrabacher, Rothfus, Salmon, Ann Wagner, Wenstrup
From Iowa’s Congressional Delegation Grassley, King and Congressman Rod Blum have signed. Unsurprisingly Congressman David Loebsack’s name is absent as none of the signers are Democrat. Noticeably absent for Republicans are Congressman David Young and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst.
Young’s chief of staff James Carstensen told me over the weekend that Young agreed with everything in the letter, but didn’t sign because he was on the appropriations committee and though it would be strange to sign a letter that was somewhat directed at him as a member of the committee.
Young told Caffeinated Thoughts yesterday that he was completely against Common Core, wants to repeal No Child Left Behind, and would block grant education dollars to the states. On the Student Success Act, H.R. 5, he said he leaned no when the bill was pulled.
Caffeinated Thoughts did not receive a direct answer from Ernst’s office.
Ernst’s spokesperson Angela Zirkelbach, told Caffeinated Thoughts that Ernst supports the premise of the letter and pointed out that she voted in favor of U.S. Senator David Vitter’s (R-LA) amendment that would prohibit “the Federal Government from mandating, incentivizing, or coercing States to adopt the Common Core State Standards or any other specific academic standards, instructional content, curricula, assessments, or programs of instruction and allowing States to opt out of the Common Core State Standards without penalty.” Ernst has made her position clear during a past interview and her vote demonstrates she’s against conditional grants.