SC and OK Dump Common Core - is LA Next?

By Kim D.

Two more governors have signed bills within the past week that dump Common Core Standards with the intention of replacing them with revised state standards focused on real improvement instead of a top-down, one-size-fits-all, federal hijacking of public education.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed a bill on May 30th to abolish Common Core Standards by 2015, and yesterday Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin followed suit signing a similar bill of rejection.  Along with Indiana, the first state to reject Common Core implementation, this leaves only 42 states to wise up and stop a federal takeover of their children's education.

According to Education Week, Louisiana may be the next state to replace Common Core. Opponents of the English and math benchmarks used to judge students across most states are pressuring Jindal to take executive action to remove Louisiana from the Common Core and its standardized testing, known as PARCC. The Republican governor, a one-time supporter of the standards who is now a critic, said he's studying his legal options. He wants Louisiana to develop state-specific standards and has compared the standards to a federal takeover akin to "centralized planning ... in Russia."


Unfortunately for Jindal, a faction of Common Core supporters, back by the Superintendent of Education John White, are firmly opposed to such a move and claim the governor doesn't have the legal authority to yank Louisiana away from the education benchmarks.

White said the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education sets the standards under law, and he said a 2012 law spells out that the state must use nationally recognized content standards. "It's a pretty straight-up thing," White said. "It's no secret the direction in which we are going and the law is on our side. BESE has the power to set the standards, and BESE set the standards."