COMMON DENOMINATOR: Legislators File Suit Against Common Core

Seventeen Louisiana legislators have filed a lawsuit in the 19th Judicial District Court (Baton Rouge), demanding that the court get to the bottom on how the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the state Department of Education (DOE) implemented the controversial Common Core State Standards.

The Common Core State Standards were adopted by the state in 2010, encompassing English language arts (ELA) and math. Full implementation of the standards did not come until this past school year, bypassing a transitional year that was originally planned.

According to the legislators, “BESE and DOE never implemented the changes in accordance with the Administrative
Procedures Act, which prescribes a specific process, requiring public notice, a 90 day comment period, open hearings
and legislative oversight.”

State Superintendent John White said the claim by legislators against the standards will not hold up in court.

State schools superintendentJohn White dismissed the lawsuit as being frivolous. “There is no legal basis for their claim whatsoever,” he said during a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has waged his own war against Common Core, said the lawsuit by legislators is entirely separate from his actions that he has taken against the standards and said that he did not coordinate with the legislators.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Common Core opponent, said he did not coordinate with the legislators suing the state Department of Education, even though the governor has his own, separate campaignunderway to block the use of Common Core in Louisiana.

“Though we were not involved in the filing of this suit, we support these and other efforts by legislators to ensure the law is followed,” said Jindal in a written statement.

Most recently, BESE announced that it would drop the Common Core-aligned testing component, known as the PARCC Assessment, for the 2014-2015 academic school year. The issue is not dying down anytime soon and education officials on both sides of the argument say it will most likely get tied up in court.

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