Kentucky’s education commissioner: US Department of Education violating state and federal law with rejection of state’s request for more time to implement science standards

In a set of comments that sound like things we have been saying for years at the Bluegrass Institute, the Kentucky School Boards Association reports Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday is exploding about federal intrusion into the state’s management of its education program. The specific trigger, according to the school boards group, is that rough-handed action by the US Department of Education (USED) is “violating state and federal law in forcing Kentucky to rush its implementation of the Next-Generation science standards.”

The school boards news release continues:

“In his weekly Web blog Friday, Holliday confirmed that USED officials had rejected his agency’s request to delay measuring the science standards in the spring 2014 K-PREP exams – an action the commissioner said is illegal.”

Wow! Talk about punching the feds right in the eye! And, there is more to this exploding story.

This is actually the second week in a row that Holliday’s Doc H’s Blog has taken aim at federal intrusion into states’ rights with the No Child Left Behind waiver process. I wrote about the first blog earlier. Holliday charged in his earlier August 15, 2014 Doc H’s Blog that:

“I believe the current waiver process represents a major federal intrusion into the rights of each state to develop, implement, and manage the public education of the state.”

Now, in his August 22, 2014 blog, “USED action contrary to state, federal law,” Holliday raises a stink again about the continued, unlawful federal intrusion into the state’s standards and assessment processes. Among other issues raised in the second Doc H’s Blog:

“…the waiver process has now started to stifle innovation and have a negative impact on improving instruction and student achievement.”

“USED expects Kentucky to give a science assessment that measures our previous science standards in spring 2015. This expectation not only violates our state law, but, also violates NCLB that requires states to assess science (once in elementary and middle school) based on current state standards.”

And, Holliday indicates bad things are not just happening in Kentucky, saying:

“I do have concerns about other states that used the leverage of the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant and waiver process to implement reforms without state law.”

I hope out of state readers got that. Did your state violate the law when it went after RTTT money? Kentucky’s commissioner of education is saying some did.

All of this may tie to another new story as Holliday just announced this morning the start of a public review period for Kentucky’s Common Core State Standards implementation, called the “Kentucky Core Academic Standards.” With the US Department of Education trying to control the game, can the commissioner really change those standards, or not? I’ll have more on that related story later.