Judge Rules Missouri’s Membership in Common Core Testing Group Is Illegal

The Washington Post reports on the ruling in Sauer v. Nixon:

The fighting over the Common Core initiative continues: A Missouri judge said the state’s membership in a federally funded testing consortium charged with creating an assessment aligned with the Common Core standards is illegal. And what’s more, he ruled that the state should stop paying fees to the group, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

The ruling, which is expected to be appealed and well may not stand, is the newest salvo in what is an increasingly heated debate over Common Core State standards. The Associated Press reported that the state had budgeted about $4.3 million to pay dues to the SBAC this fiscal year.

The tactic of going to court to stop membership in a Core consortium could spread to other states by Core critics.

Read the full article.

Read the ruling.

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The Federalist Society recently hosted a Teleforum call on the topic of Common Core that featured the Sauer v. Nixon case.

The Common Core State Standards attempts to define what K-12 students should know at the end of each school year in key subject areas. The initiative garnered strong and broad support, but has come under increasingly heavy criticism from state and local officials, and parents. Supporters argue that uniform standards are an essential part of assuring quality education throughout the nation. Criticisms range from concerns about top-down, federal control of a traditionally state and local government function, to attempts to impose a nationwide curriculum, to a lack of field testing of the standards. Our experts discussed the standards and who has the better argument.

• Jimmy R. Faircloth, Jr., Managing Partner, Faircloth, Melton & Keiser, LLC
• D. John Sauer, Partner, Clark & Sauer, LLC

Listen to the podcast.