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Louisiana Governor Jindal Issues Executive Orders to Drop Common Core and PARCC

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal today issued executive orders to withdraw the state from the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Unlike other Republican governors who have turned against the standards, Jindal is acting without support from his state legislature or superintendent of education.

At a press conference, Jindal said, “We want out of Common Core,” adding that, “We’re very alarmed about choice and local control of curriculum being taken away from our parents and educators.”

Jindal said that his office has notified the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association that Louisiana would like to drop CCSS and PARCC. His executive orders instruct the state Department of Education to begin a competitive bidding process to replace the PARCC test, even though the memorandum of understanding Louisiana signed when it joined PARCC indicates that the governor cannot withdraw unilaterally.

Jindal argued that state law does not allow Louisiana to sign up for a test like PARCC without a competitive bidding process. Therefore, he said, the state must start the process of looking for standardized tests from scratch. “Today’s action gets us out of the Common Core, but it’s not the ultimate solution,” he said, suggesting that he intends to take further action.

Jindal was once a supporter of the CCSS, which he helped bring to Louisiana in 2010. This spring, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation included a quote from Jindal praising CCSS as a way to “raise expectations for every child” in a promotional video for the standards.

This year, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Indiana have dropped the standards, and two other states are heading in that direction. In North Carolina, legislators are trying to reconcile bills passed by the House and Senate. In Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon has until July 14 to decide whether to sign a bill that would abolish the standards.

About the Author

Christopher Piehler is the former editor-in-chief of THE Journal.

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