“It appears that Gov. Cuomo has finally come to understand the anguish and hardship experienced by our educators and students and decided to re-evaluate the standards, but this should have been done years ago. I am pleased to see that Gov. Cuomo has finally realized the concerns of parents, students and educators that the Assembly Minority has been vocalizing for the past two years. Gov. Cuomo has had multiple opportunities to do this in the past, amidst growing cries for reform; he is now finally changing his opinion. This is potentially a massive victory for our students, parents and teachers; and, I am proud to say, Long Islanders will finally have a voice in the process if Gov. Cuomo indeed follows through on his commitment.”

“Before implementation of the Common Core Standards, my colleagues and I held several statewide public forums to vet and expose the difficulties our school districts were experiencing with the program’s implementation. Our plan to reform Common Core, the Achieving Pupil Preparedness and Launching Excellence (APPLE) Plan, was ignored by Gov. Cuomo and the Assembly Majority until now. Hopefully, Gov. Cuomo follows through on his commitment to make New York state education more inclusive.”