800 Attend Common Core Town Hall In Calcasieu Parish

An estimated crowd between 700 and 800 people gathered in the gymnasium at Sam Houston High School Monday night for a town hall meeting to discuss the Common Core state standards.

The meeting was attended by Calcasieu Parish School System officials, as well as Board of Elementary of Secondary Education members and members of the area's legislative delegation.

State. Rep. Brett Geymann, who helped organize the town hall, said parents and teachers are increasingly frustrated with the standards, especially with the "fuzzy math." In many cases, teachers are having to teach both the Common Core method and the traditional method.

"We had moms and dads coming to the floor and just saying...they're up late into the night with their second-grader doing homework," Geymann. "Now that's just ridiculous."

Geymann said parents and teachers are upset they were not consulted during the decision making process to implement the standards in Louisiana, and they're just as upset that legislators did nothing to dismantle the standards during the last legislative session.

"[Parents] looked us in they eye and said we're holding you accountable because you are the ones that are putting this on our family and we don't like it and we want to know why we were left out," Geymann said.

As far as what to do next, Geymann said opposition to the Common Core must start at the grassroots level.

"The most effective thing we can do is get organized across the state at the grassroots level and just contact our elected officials all the way from the school board up to the legislature, your BESE board members and of course the governor and whoever the next governor is," Geymann said.

To listen to the full interview with Geymann, click on the 'Play' button below.