Oklahoma is the second state ever to lose its reprieve from No Child Left Behind. The price of Common Core repeal

Two Republican governors repealed the Common Core this year and on Thursday, they got very different results.

The Education Department said it’s yanking Oklahoma’s waiver from No Child Left Behind, making it the second state to lose its reprieve from the law. But Indiana will receive a one-year extension of its waiver because it did what the Sooner State could not: find a suitable replacement for the Common Core.


The move marks the latest battle between states and the Obama administration over what has been perceived to be heavy-handed federal education policy that will continue for the next few years.

Since some Oklahoma children have already started the school year, the Education Department will phase in some of the consequences of No Child Left Behind that Oklahoma had escaped under the waiver: The state must provide tutoring services and public school choice options no later than the 2015-16 school year. But schools that will need a total overhaul must begin that process this school year.

( Also on POLITICO: Jindal sues over Common Core)

“It is outrageous that President [Barack] Obama and Washington bureaucrats are trying to dictate how Oklahoma schools spend education dollars,” Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said in a statement. “Because of overwhelming opposition from Oklahoma parents and voters to Common Core, Washington is now acting to punish us. This is one more example of an out-of-control presidency that places a politicized Washington agenda over the well-being of Oklahoma students.”

This marks the first time the Education Department has stripped a state of its waiver on the grounds of academic standards, said Anne Hyslop, a senior policy analyst for Bellwether Education Partners.

“This is obviously dicey water for the Secretary [Arne] Duncan, given growing opposition to Common Core,” she said.

States had to adopt so-called college- and career-ready standards to escape some of NCLB’s requirements, including offering school choice and tutoring or reconfiguring schools that are considered failing under the law. But most states with waivers adopted the Common Core.

Fallin did an about-face on her support of the standards this year and signed a bill in early June repealing the Common Core after previously supporting the standards. The state reverted to its old academic standards, the Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills standards.

( Also on POLITICO: The GOP's new take on pre-K)

The federal Education Department wanted the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to decide whether the old PASS standards were high enough. But the agency failed to do so before the state filed its application for a waiver extension earlier this month.

And the Oklahoma state board of education has only just launched its effort to write new standards.

“Having college-and-career-ready standards matters because it provides critical thinking and problem solving skills — skills that students need to succeed in college and beyond,” Education Department press secretary Dorie Nolt said. “Oklahoma was unable to demonstrate that its students are learning high standards this year, which the state committed to do under its ESEA flexibility request. State leaders still have the opportunity to demonstrate that their standards are rigorous or design new standards to ensure their students are ready for college, career and life — just like Indiana and several other states have done.”

Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli called the Education Department’s move a “terrible decision.”

“While Bobby Jindal doesn’t have a case against Arne Duncan, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin sure as heck does,” he said. “I hope she sues. Nothing in ESEA gives the secretary of education the authority to push states around when it comes to their standards.”

Stripping the waiver means at most Oklahoma schools, 100 percent of students performing math and reading at grade level by this school year. The Education Department expects the state to use student test results from last school year to determine which schools are meeting the bar. Some schools that fall short aren’t will have to take steps toward improvement, which could include a total restructuring of the staff or a private or state takeover of the school.

( Also on POLITICO: A bad week for Common Core)

The state will have to set aside about $29 million in federal Title I dollars to pay for tutoring and school choice.

Some have slammed Oklahoma’s decision to ditch the Common Core, given its performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — otherwise known as the Nation’s Report Card. Only 25 percent of eighth graders are proficient in math and 29 percent are considered proficient in reading.

State officials likely aren’t shocked that they lost flexibility from the law. But they’re certainly not thrilled, either.

“Good work and great results have emerged from” the flexibility waiver, Oklahoma state Superintendent Janet Barresi wrote to the department when requesting an extension. “Losing this flexibility would be akin to erasing incredible progress toward helping Oklahoma children build success — not just in the current school year, but for an entire generation and beyond.”

In Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence openly hated the Common Core. Pence, state Superintendent Glenda Ritz and members of the state board bickered over requesting a waiver extension. But the Hoosier State came up a new set of standards that look a lot like the Common Core and the entire package made it to the Education Department in late June just as the state’s waiver expired.

“This news means that local schools throughout our state will receive much needed flexibility in how they utilize their federal dollars,” Ritz said. “This waiver extension also will allow Indiana to have continued flexibility in how we measure student performance and growth.”

Kansas’ waiver, which was placed on high-risk status by the Education Department earlier this year because the state wasn’t up to speed with its teacher evaluation system, also received a one-year extension on Thursday. But the state has to work on its teacher evaluation process this year to earn a longer renewal of its waiver in the coming spring.

The Education Department recently said states could ask for more flexibility regarding teacher evaluations. Duncan expects some will choose to delay tying student test results those evaluations until the 2015-16 school year.

Oklahoma is the second state to lose its waiver this year. Washington state lost its waiver in late April because the state Legislature failed to come up with a fix that would allow the Evergreen State to tie statewide student test results to teacher evaluations.

Oklahoma and Washington highlight “what a lawless process” the waiver system has become, said Frederick Hess of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“I defy anybody to go through and find any shred of consistency in the decisions that have been made here,” he said.

Hess said almost every waiver state likely has made significant departures from their original plans.

“States were ushered into signing up for the Common Core en masse … and it’s brought us to this predictable place,” he said. “They’re now stuck in this place where they’re told if you move off the Common Core, you’re supposed to come up with new assessments and standards in a matter of weeks … it’s a somewhat unreasonable expectation.”

With Oklahoma and Washington out of the picture, 41 states and D.C. have waivers from No Child Left Behind. Thirty-five of those waivers expired this summer and 22 states have received one-year extensions of their waivers so far.

States made a number of promises for their waivers, including adopting new high-quality standards and assessments and revamping their teacher evaluation systems. In exchange, states received the flexibility to spend millions of dollars how they want. They also avoid having to pay for tutoring services or transportation for students who choose to leave failing schools.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is long overdue for reauthorization, so the Obama administration began issuing waivers from parts of the law in 2011.

Hyslop said Oklahoma could probably rectify its waiver mess pretty easily if state officials choose to do so.

“All things considered, the waivers set a pretty low bar for defining ‘college- and career-ready’ standards,” she said. “It’s just a piece of paper, a letter. There isn’t any real policy behind it. So if Oklahoma’s colleges and universities were to sign a letter stating that the old standards passed their muster, I think Oklahoma could get its waiver back fairly easily.”