Assemblyman Dave McDonough (R,C,I-Merrick) attended a press conference today with several other members of the Assembly Minority Conference to reintroduce their APPLE Plan bills for the new legislative term. McDonough said that our children and teachers are still struggling to adapt to the new testing standards, and now, Gov. Cuomo has unfairly withheld school runs for the next fiscal year, which further complicates the issue.

“The problem with Common Core is that educators were not consulted about how to implement the new standards,” McDonough said. “Our Conference has held several statewide education forums and heard hundreds of hours of testimony from those on the front lines of education. Gov. Cuomo and the Assembly Majority have clearly ignored the needs of students and parents, so we are reintroducing this legislation and will continue the fight for our schools during this year’s legislative session.”

This morning’s press conference, led by Assemblymen Ed Ra and Al Graf, was organized as a precursor to the public budget hearing on education. McDonough serves on the Assembly’s Education Committee.