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Missourians Sue State Based on Illegal Payments for Common Core Tests
September, 2014Anne Gassel and Gretchen Logue, co-founders of our friends, Missouri Coalition Against Common Core joined Fred Sauer in filing a lawsuit against Governor Nixon, Commissioner Nicastro, and others. They argue that the state's payments for the federally funded, federally supervised national tests, SBAC, constitute a violation of the Compact Clause of the US Constitution and numerous other state and federal statutes.
Truth in American Education describes the lawsuit this way:
By passing HB 1490 by an overwhelming majority, the Missouri state legislature effectively repudiated Common Core, requiring it to be replaced by 2016. But Missouri has not withdrawn from the consortium of states implementing Common Core aligned tests. According to public records, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education plans to send millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to the Smarter Balanced consortium in 2015, which will be used to support the implementation of Common Core in numerous other states. These payments are illegal under the federal constitution, federal statutes, and Missouri state law.
Governor Nixon and Commissioner Nicastro engaged in a long course of conduct, in cooperation with the federal Department of Education, to commit Missouri's public schools to Common Core without legislative approval. The "consortium" of States implementing tests aligned with Common Core constitutes an illegal end-run around federal statutes forbidding the federal Department from implementing a national test or curriculum. Even though Missouri is committed to exiting Common Core, DESE nevertheless continues to participate in SBAC and to administer the SBAC common core aligned tests in this state.
"The Missouri Legislature and Missouri voters have rejected Common Core. Yet DESE continues to plan to send millions of dollars of payments to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to support the implementation of Common Core in other states. The consortium is an unconstitutional entity, and these payments are illegal. We will continue to fight to protect Missouri taxes from being spent for this illegal purpose," said Gassel and Logue.
We will follow this lawsuit and report on developments as they happen. Stay tuned.
