With Indiana making changes to the Common Core (and Oklahoma likely to follow), many are turning their attention to Louisiana. While some state legislative sessions began much earlier this year, the Bayou State is just getting started and has long been seen as a potential battleground in the fight over Common Core. Wednesday saw the battle get underway, with a marathon hearing to consider two bills: HB381 threatens to remove the Common Core standards, replace them with the old Louisiana standards, and begin the process of writing new ones, while HB558 would remove PARCC as the state assessment. This comes just days after a memorandum was issued pegging the cost of backing out of Common Core in the tens of millions of dollars. The bills were also probably more extensive than the previously referenced bills in Indiana and Oklahoma, due to the provision in HB381 that would have immediately reverted back to the old standards. After hours of testimony from both sides, including strong support for the standards from the education and business communities and strong opposition from activists and parents, there were two fairly major developments: First, Governor Jindal's office filed in support of the bills. And second, both bills failed by a 12–7 margin. Common Core foes have vowed to fight on, and it is likely we will see hearings on other bills to kill or modify Common Core.
RELATED ARTICLE: Julia O’Donoghue, “Education Department says scrapping Common Core would cost Louisiana,” Times-Picayune, March 28, 2014.
