Suit filed to stop Common Core
Published 7:52 am Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Seventeen Louisiana House lawmakers filed a lawsuit Monday that alleges the state Department of Education and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education violated state law by not following the Administrative Procedures Act when they enacted the Common Core State Standards in 2010.
The suit was filed in the 19th Judicial Court in Baton Rouge. Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Moss Bluff, said the APA process requires public notice, a 90-day comment period, open hearings and legislative oversight. He said the group is asking the court to determine whether the agencies needed to follow those steps to legally adopt the controversial standards.
“We don’t find any evidence that they went through the Administrative Procedures Act, so we are asking the court to rule and make a determination,” Geymann said. “If that’s the case, then the court can rule Common Core invalid based on the fact they didn’t follow the law.”
In the past, changes to education standards were implemented under APA and published in the Louisiana Register, according to Geymann. The last standards rule change logged in the Register was in 2005, he said.
“We are trying to make sure that when the agencies make rule changes and policy changes, the public has an opportunity to be involved … and they follow the law,” Geymann said.
Geymann introduced legislation to remove CCSS in this year’s legislative session, but the House Education Committee rejected it.
During a media teleconference Monday, BESE President Chas Roemer and State Education Superintendent John White both said the allegations were invalid, and that the suit had no legal basis. White admitted the CCSS were not enacted by the APA, but that state law doesn’t require the agencies to do so.
He said the law only requires the DOE to establish standards, BESE to approve those standards, and that those standards be nationally recognized.
“Everything that the law requires to be done was done in 2010,” White said. “It creates a false impression to say that BESE had to follow the Administrative Procedures Act when the law simply does not say it.”
Roemer agreed and said he feels strongly that the law will side with the agencies.
“This just seems like another maneuver to slow us down, to bog us down … to go outside of the legislative and BESE constitutional powers and try to find a way to stop the implementation of Common Core.”
Lawmakers who filed the suit were Reps. Geymann, James Armes, D-Leesville, Henry Burns, R-Haughton, Johnny Guinn, R-Jennings, Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, Joe Harrison, R-Gray, Kenny Havard, R-Jackson, Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville, Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, Paul Hollis, R-Covington, Barry Ivey, R-Baton Rouge, Sam Jones, D-Franklin, Rogers Pope, R-Denham Springs, Jerome “Dee” Richard, I-Thibodaux, Terry Brown, I-Colfax, John Schroder, R-Covington, and Lenar Whitney, R-Houma.