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Bobby Jindal Receives First Defeat In Legal Campaign Against Common Core

CREDIT: MOLLY RILEY, AP
CREDIT: MOLLY RILEY, AP

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who is running for president, lost his federal lawsuit against the Obama administration over what he calls “unconstitutional” Common Core state standards on Wednesday.

Last summer, Jindal decided to sue the Obama administration, and argued that the standards violated the Constitution through its Race to the Top program, because he claims it forced states to adopt the standards.

However, states had the ability to decide whether or not to adopt the standards. Jindal himself supported the standards in 2012. Despite the fact that the state’s education department was not eager to push a bill easing implementation of the Common Core standards, Jindal championed the effort. Three years later, Jindal has railed against the standards and recently criticized its approach to teaching math, saying parents wouldn’t be able to help their children with their homework. He also suggested that the Obama administration could push history into the Common Core standards, saying the nonexistent history standards would focus on “America’s shortcomings and failures.”

In February, Shelly Dick, U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana, ruled the case would be heard after the U.S. Department of Education filed a motion to dismiss and in May, a federal district court in Baton Rouge heard the case. During the hearing, Ann Whalen, a former Department of Education official, testified to clear up any misconceptions that the federal government coerced states into adopting the standards and mentioned that Florida, Georgia, and Kentucky dropped Common Core standards without losing Race to the Top grants.

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Ultimately, Judge Dick did not agree that Jindal’s representation of Common Core implementation was factually correct. She wrote that Common Core was not a curriculum and that federal education programs are not hurting states’ rights. She said that even if the standards had been mandated by the federal government, they would not have violated states’ rights, because it was not an actual curriculum that would require certain “means and methods” to be used, such as counting fingers and toes versus using flash cards, according to The Times-Picayune.

Jindal’s lawyer, Jimmy Faircloth, said they will appeal the decision.