Law & Courts

La. Court Rules Against Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Bid to Stop Common-Core Testing

By Andrew Ujifusa — June 18, 2015 1 min read
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A Louisiana court has ruled against Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in his attempt to block state testing aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

A three-judge panel of the state’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled June 17 that Jindal’s attempt to stop the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test by suspending the state’s testing contract was “unconstitutional interference” by the Republican governor. The court upheld a ruling by state District Court Judge Todd Hernandez last August that lifted Jindal’s suspension of the state contract for PARCC.

Jindal had argued in his suit that the state education department and state school board reached the contract with Data Recognition Corporation without following state procurement law. But the Court of Appeals found that Jindal’s action “constituted an unconstitutional interference with contracts for student assessment services entered into by [the state school board] and the [department of education] to fulfill mandates by the Louisiana Legislature regarding testing and content standards.” (Hat-tip to the New Orleans Times-Picayune for the ruling.)

The governor, a vociferous opponent of the common core as well as the PARCC test, quickly announced that he would appeal the ruling. Jindal is also fighting the legality of the common core and aligned test in federal court in a suit against U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The state is at the start of an official review of the common core, although interpretations of where it will lead differ. (Previous attempts to end the common core and PARCC in the state legislature have flopped.) Jindal hopes that it leads to a true repeal of the standards, while state Superintendent John White and the state board emphasize that it’s a chance to improve the standards but not end them.

A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.