The K-12 math standards committee for the new proposed state education standards reviewed Saturday the comments and suggestions that Minnesotans have made since the standards were released.

Kathy Green, school board member and a part of the math standards committee for grades nine through 12, updated curriculum committee members Wednesday about the proposed standards.

"This draft is now being fine-tuned," Green said as she held a thick packet of paper in her hands.

Green said the standards are specific but don't tell educators how to teach them.

She also addressed criticism from legislators who said there was not enough time to draft the standards and that there wasn't enough input from different viewpoints. Green said teachers, professors and parents were all involved in the committees.

"It was a very dynamic group of people coming together," she said.

Green said they used other state's standards as guidelines, but assured the group that the proposed standards were Minnesota's. She also said the standards weren't completely new to Minnesota.

"They weren't reinventing the wheel," Green said. "They were just putting to paper what good teachers have been doing for years."

The House of Representative repealed the state's current standards, the Profile of Learning, earlier this year, but the Senate recently rejected a bill to repeal them. A modified Pledge of Allegiance bill was also attached to the bill and senators voted 33-32 along party lines to reject it.

Another bill about the standards is making its way through the Senate, but instead of putting control of the standards to the Commissioner of Education, it only would allow the legislature to make adjustments to the standards, Green said.

Green encouraged committee members to talk to Sen. Dan Sparks, who voted down repealing the standards, about their concerns.

"We need to get beyond politics because this is going to affect our kids," Green said.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com