Wants Common Core out, too

Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal just issued an executive order taking his state out of the Common Core State Standards testing program known as the Partnership of Assessments for College and Career Readiness (PARCC).In his press conference announcing the order, Jindal also says he will push for his legislature to pull the state out of Common Core completely in the next session.

Jindal’s authority to unilaterally remove his state from PARCC is being challenged by Louisiana’s Commissioner of Education. However, among other things, Jindal’s order extensively outlines how the department’s entry into PARCC violated the state’s contracting laws.

This dispute could get interesting as the commissioner is possibly placing himself above the law as well as in direct defiance of the governor, certainly a risky business.

In any event, this quote from Governor Jindal’s press conference points to some serious coercion from the federal government regarding education matters despite the fact that the US Constitution, as amended, clearly reserves control over education to the states:

“It is this simple. The Federal government would like to assert control of our educational system and watch implementation of a one-size-fits-all set of standards that raises a lot of serious concerns. We are very alarmed about choice and local control over curriculum being taken away from our parents and our educators. Instead of focusing on high standards and giving the states the freedom to implement their own policies to reach those standards Common Core has become a one-size-fits-all program that simply does not make sense for our state. If other states want to allow the federal government to dictate to them they have every right to make that choice. But Education is and always has been a primary of states and local government.”

While Governor Jindal is addressing Louisiana in this statement, there is a message here for Kentucky, too.

Kentuckians need to keep Governor Jindal’s comments about federal entanglement with Common Core and related testing firmly in mind as we wrestle with the obvious fact that the Common Core State Standards, at the very least, need more work. Even Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday now seems to understand that a review of the standards as they apply to Kentucky is warranted and such a review, tentatively being called the “Kentucky Core Academic Standards Challenge,” is planned for sometime around the start of the next school term.

For sure, as the Bluegrass Institute has pointed out for some time, many Kentucky students “Need More than Core.” We know that Senate Bill 1 from the 2009 Regular Legislative Session (SB-1) called for a revised education system, standards included, to serve the needs of “All Students.” In the assessment part of the bill it is made very clear that this includes the needs of “Advanced Learners.” However, even Common Core supporters now admit the Core is only a set of minimum standards. So, those of us at the Institute don’t understand how such minimal and incomplete standards, which certainly omit “advanced” material, can really comply with SB-1.We can fix this problem, but only if, going forward, Kentucky can use Common Core as a “Model, but Not A Mandate.” Core must be freed from entanglements from Washington, whether from public or private organizations. This removal of Washington restrictions is essential if we want to do the best job for our students and avoid the dangers that Governor Jindal points out so clearly in his message above.

One more thing: Assuming Kentucky comes up with good modifications to the Common Core that also apply well across other states, there needs to be a group in Washington to modify Common Core to keep it really as “Common” as possible. That group should have been formed from the outset, but the National Governors’ Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers failed to step up to this plate and really create a living Common Core document. Until things change, Common Core, despite all other problems, is a static, non-living set of standards. That is a recipe for future failure.