Lawyers for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have filed suit aimed at stopping the state from having to use standardized Common Core testing materials,
Politico reported.
Jindal argues that Common Core — formally known as Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — is "a scheme to drive education curriculum" out of Washington.
"Common Core began as an effort to simply raise standards for students, but it has morphed into a scheme to drive education curriculum from Washington, D.C.," Jindal said, according to Politico.
The possible 2016 presidential contender added: "Congress drew a bright red line that can't be crossed and it clearly bars the federal government from 'directing, supervising or controlling elementary and secondary school curriculum, programs of instruction and instructional material.' Implementing [Common Core] in Louisiana crosses the line because what's tested is what's taught. [Common Core] is a federal agent for co-opting our school's curriculum," Politico reported.
The Obama administration and Education Secretary Arne Duncan were "trying to accomplish very indirectly what Congress has told them they can't do," Jindal's lawyer, Jimmy Faircloth, said.
Critics say the Education Department's advocacy of Common Core is legally questionable.
"The role of the federal government in offering money to states to adopt the standards may well have been illegal," Education historian Diane Ravitch argued, according to Politico.
She said Duncan's "ridiculing of critics of the standards as tea party extremists belies his insistence that the federal government had nothing to do with the Common Core standards."
Ravitch added, "If he had nothing to do with them, why is he their number one salesman? Why does he so stridently belittle their critics and mischaracterize their motives?"
Jindal asked the Federal District Court to invalidate Louisiana's memorandum of understanding with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
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