Gov. Jindal Being Sued Again Over Common Core

It just keeps getting worse for Bobby Jindal. Earlier this week I wrote about the Black Education Alliance for Education filing a lawsuit against the Louisiana governor over his plans to withdraw the state from Common Core requirements. Now, a group of Louisiana parents, teachers, and a foundation that runs charter schools in also suing the governor that he lacks the authority to withdraw his state from the Common Core national academic standards.
Stephen H. Kupperman, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs said, “We think the governor has overstepped his bounds and doesn’t have any right to do this. We don’t want to hold the children of the state hostage to somebody’s ambitions.”
In June, Jindal suspended testing contracts that the state education department planned to use to purchase testing material associated with Common Core for the upcoming school year. The lawsuit filed states that the Governor has violated the Louisiana Constitution by issuing a number of orders intended to undermine Common Core.
As a potential 2016 presidential candidate, Jindal once was a strong supporter of the Common Core State Standards, which are used in more than 40 states and display benchmarks of what every student in the nation should learn in math and reading grade-by-grade.
The former supporter of Common Core called the standards a way to “raise expectations for every child” in a pro-common Core ad. As the standards experience growing criticism, particularly from tea party supporters, Gov. Jindal’s support vanishes. He now opposes Common Core, and believes that they are a federal intrusion into local education.
I am really interested to hear what happens next in Louisiana. Common Core raises a lot of controversy, and it is unfortunate the people in Louisiana and the Governor aren’t seeing eye to eye when it comes to the use of these standards within the states schools.