Topeka — The Tea-party affiliated FreedomWorks is urging Kansas legislators to reject Common Core reading and math standards.

“Help us protect Kansan students from Common Core,” Whitney Neal, director of grassroots for FreedomWorks, said in a note to the group’s members. “Let’s fight to keep parents, teachers, and local communities in charge of education – not Washington bureaucrats.”

Kansas formally adopted Common Core standards in 2010, saying they would help prepare students for college and careers. Numerous school districts throughout the state, including Lawrence, have spent the past two years getting teachers ready to implement them.

Common Core standards have been adopted by most states, and started as a project of the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers.

But FreedomWorks says Common Core will take away the rights of states to compose their own education requirements.

In Kansas, the Legislature is fighting over budget and tax issues. Senate Republican leaders want to insert a provision in the budget that would prohibit the expenditure of state funds to implement Common Core standards.