Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino speaks with reporters on Wednesday evening at Between the Buns in Potsdam.

By ANDY GARDNER

POTSDAM -- If Republican gubernatorial candidate Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino unseats incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo in November, the state education system could get an overhaul, he said at a meet-and-greet event Wednesday at Between the Buns. He also touched on school mergers, saying he believes state government should largely stay out of such issues.

He says he wants to nix the controversial Common Core standards and provide more mandate relief to ailing districts.

"Cuomo took billions and billions of dollars away from school districts in state aid … the responsible thing to do … is give mandate relief," he said, adding at the same time preserving the 2 percent property tax cap.

When a reporter asked Astorino to spell out a couple of examples, he answered by talking about Medicaid mandates and said he would like to see the state eventually assume full payments for the program years down the road.

Astorino says the Common Core standards need to go and would like to see them replaced by state standards.

He says if elected, "we would get out of Common Core and replace them with New York-based higher standards."

He added that the makings are already there. He said he would like to see the state fully develop what he referred to as "the lost standards," which was a state-based education curriculum in the works when Albany signed on with Common Core. He said they stopped in the middle of creating the new standards and went with the national trend to get federal Race To The Top money, which only goes to Common Core states.

"We need better standards, a de-emphasis on testing and more control to the local school districts," Astorino said.

With regard to school mergers, Astorino said it should be a local decision, not made in Albany, but does favor consolidation.

"I respect home rule," he said. "It's up to the voters in the district."

But, he offered the caveat "it's not as big a savings as what you'd think."