Washington: Indian American governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal on Wednesday sued the Obama administration, accusing it of hijacking federal grants to coerce states to adopt Common Core educational standards and assessments, thus violating the federal law and the Constitution. "The federal government has hijacked and destroyed the Common Core initiative. Common Core is the latest effort by big government disciples to strip away state rights and put Washington, DC in control of everything," Jindal said in a statement after filing the lawsuit against the Obama Administration. The Common Core State Standards Initiative is an educational initiative in the United States that details what K-12 students should know in English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade.
The 43-year-old Republican party leader is a presidential aspirant for the elections in 2016. He has not announced his candidature yet. "What started out as an innovative idea to create a set of base-line standards that could be 'voluntarily' used by the states has turned into a scheme by the federal government to nationalise curriculum," Jindal said. In his lawsuit, Jindal argues that the Obama administration has used federal grants to compel states to enter binding agreements to adopt and fully implement a single set of federally-defined content standards and to utilise assessment products created by a federally-sponsored "consortia". Furthermore, the US Department of Education has made changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) state test review and approval process that will coerce states to adopt the federal government’s preferred tests or risk billions in federal funding, he argued.
The suit argues that these actions violate long-standing limitations by Congress on the role of the federal government in education policy. "The proponents of Common Core will tell you that it's simply about one test and about standards, but that's a ruse. Common Core is about controlling curriculum. Educators know that what's tested is what's taught. Make no mistake – Common Core tests will drive curriculum," Jindal said. "Common Core supporters should own up to this fact and finally admit they want to control curriculum. These are big government elitists that believe they know better than parents and local school boards," he added. "Through the federally funded consortia, PARCC, along with Race to the Top grants, the federal government has coerced states into giving up local control of education". "The federal government's actions are in violation of the Constitution and federal law and we will continue to fight to protect local control of education," Jindal said.
