Louisiana Withdraws from PARCC and Jindal Moves to Block Pearson Test Purchase

In the latest bad news for the Oligarchs' Common Core enterprise, Bobby Jindal has moved to sever the head from the Common Core monster in Louisiana.  He knows that without the Pearson tests that PARCC is force-feeding the states without the benefit of a bidding process, the Core will disappear within a couple of years.  

Jindal's office has notified the State Department of Education that purchasing the Pearson tests without bidding is a violation of state law.  So even though corporate stooge and State Supt., John White, says the state will keep on teaching to the standards, there will be no test, apparently, until the bidding process is opened up.  

If I were holding Pearson stock, I would put my Sell order in today.   From Times Picayune:

Jindal's plan to ditch Common Core in Louisiana is multi-pronged. He has contacted the consortium to remove the state from the the testing combine, and he wants to block the Education Department, which White runs with state school board oversight, from buying the new tests.

The governor said Louisiana's agreement to buy the test doesn't comply with state law. It calls for the state to enter into a contract without going through a competitive bid process, he said, so the consortium must be considered against other options. Jindal said competition would surely result in a different exam because the consortium "is, at least anecdotally, more expensive than many of the other tests offered out there."

Jindal also notified the National Governors Association that he was removing Louisiana from the Common Core development group. That does not end the use of the standards but is more of a symbolic gesture.

The governor acknowledged he can't scrap Common Core entirely without the support of the Legislature or the state school board. He said he intends to urge lawmakers, who just concluded their 2014 session, to act in 2015.

At this point, that would be an uphill battle. Lawmakers refused to ditch the standards this year, despite having several opportunities. Legislators involved in education said their colleagues didn't seem interested in following Jindal's lead.

"The Legislature has spoken loudly on this issue," said Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, chair of the Senate Education Committee.

Still, getting rid of the Common Core test would go a long way toward getting Louisiana to ditch the standards altogether, Jindal said. "Common Core is, to my mind, defined by the test," he said.