Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will drop the appeal of a Bobby Jindal-era federal lawsuit seeking to block Common Core nationally, the governor’s spokesman confirmed to Gannett Louisiana Thursday morning.
Richard Carbo says the governor’s office will provide more details of the decision later Thursday, Gannett Louisiana reports.
Baton Rouge U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ruled last fall that Common Core isn’t a curriculum and that federal education laws don’t infringe on states’ rights, but Jindal appealed the case when he was still governor.
Jindal had accused President Barack Obama’s administration of using $4.3 billion in federal grant money and policy waivers to illegally pressure states to adopt the English and math standards and associated testing in the Common Core lawsuit filed in 2014.
But Dick ruled Jindal offered “no evidence” Louisiana was made to adopt a particular set of education standards. She wrote that the federal incentives didn’t constitute mandatory acceptance.
Edwards, like Jindal, opposes Common Core, but Carbo says last year’s state legislative compromise combined with the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act makes pursuing the lawsuit unnecessary.
This week a 26-member panel of Louisiana educators approved a package of revisions to the Common Core education standards used in the state.
The revisions, which were crafted by the Louisiana Student Standards Steering Committee, were part of the compromise reached by legislators last year to appease critics who wanted Common Core standards removed and businesses and good government groups who supported the standards.
Edwards voted for the compromise when he was a member of the House last year.
