The five-page ruling was a sharp blow to Jindal. Court blocks Jindal on Common Core

A Louisiana judge on Tuesday swatted down Gov. Bobby Jindal’s attempt to use his executive authority to repeal the Common Core in his state.

Jindal is trying to unilaterally scrap the new academic standards and a related series of exams — a move that’s put him at odds with business leaders, the state superintendent, members of the board of education and many Republican legislators in Louisiana.


In a blistering five-page ruling, District Judge Todd W. Hernandez of Baton Rouge ruled that Jindal’s plan would cause “irreparable harm” to students, teachers and parents who have been preparing for the new standards for years. He also dismissed the administration’s argument that the state education department violated procurement law in the way it planned to deliver the Common Core tests to students.

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Jindal’s chief of staff, Kyle Plotkin, vowed an immediate appeal.

“We think this judge is wrong on the facts and the law,” Plotkin said.

The ruling was a sharp blow to the governor, who once enthusiastically supported the Common Core but abruptly reversed course earlier this year as tea party opposition to the standards swelled. Jindal, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, has been hailed as a hero by the far right for trying to block the standards, but the governor has had a hard time convincing the educational and business establishment in Louisiana to go along with his change of heart.

The result: Escalating tension over how math, reading and writing will be taught — and tested — in Louisiana classrooms this year.

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Dueling lawsuits have been filed over the issue. The injunction issued Tuesday came in a case brought by parents, a charter school foundation and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. A separate lawsuit, brought by 17 state legislators allied with Jindal, is still pending. The plaintiffs pressing that case are suing the state school board and the state education department for trying to implement Common Core.

In issuing the injunction, Hernandez noted that it was unusual for the judicial branch to block a governor from taking executive action. But he wrote that he had the right — and even the obligation — to do so because Jindal and his allies had “caused considerable harm to the public education system in Louisiana” and thrown schools into “a state of chaos” with their attempts to undo the Common Core.

Specifically, the judge found that Jindal’s actions caused “anxiety and other harm to the parents, teachers, administrators and students in Louisiana” who have been trapped in a state of limbo, not knowing which standards they will be using in the classroom this year or what specific content students will be tested on next spring.

Those spring tests carry high-stakes consequences: Fourth graders must pass them to be promoted to the next grade. And teachers can earn merit pay if their students score highly.

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Plotkin, the governor’s chief of staff, questioned the judge’s finding that repealing the Common Core would create chaos in Louisiana classrooms. “The judge took the arguments from Common Core proponents hook, line and sinker,” he said.

Proponents of the Common Core often say the standards are just guidelines and don’t control curriculum, Plotkin noted — but if that’s true, he asked, how could repealing the guidelines create mass chaos?

“What the proponents of Common Core have proved in this case is that Common Core is about controlling curriculum,” he said.

Jindal did not testify at the hearing. Indeed, the defense presented no witnesses, though it did submit some documents.

Hernandez ruled that Jindal’s team did not offer any evidence that Superintendent John White had broken state law in amending an existing contract with a testing company to deliver the new Common Core exams, which were developed by the federally funded PARCC consortium.

The judge blocked an effort by the Jindal administration to suspend that contract and keep the PARCC tests out of Louisiana schools.

Plotkin, the governor’s chief of staff, said that finding would send a dangerous message to other state agencies.

“It’s not open season on breaking the procurement law,” Plotkin said. “If this judge’s ruling stands, it would cause chaos in state government and bring us back to the old days in Louisiana when it was OK to give no-bid contracts to your friends.”

But White hailed the ruling. “Our students are just as smart and capable as any in America. We’ve been working for four years to teach them to the highest standards anywhere,” he said. “Today’s ruling continues that progress.”

Within two hours of the ruling, White had sent a letter to Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, a close ally of Jindal, informing her that his department would “proceed with urgency” in delivering the PARCC tests to students across the state.