Breaking: Common Core Repeal Upheld by Supreme Court

Julia Seay July 15, 2014

285 1 minute read

Today was another day of victory in Oklahoma in our fight to repeal Common Core. Days after our governor signed the Common Core repeal bill into law, some of the governor-appointed school board members filed a lawsuit saying that the repeal bill, HB3399 was unconstitutional. Well, today the OK Supreme Court found that HB3399 is constitutional. So we won… again!

Do we believe that Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, et.al. will now go away and leave Oklahoma alone? Not really. We intend to rigorously watch over the Oklahoma Dept. of Education. We have already heard that the horribly unpopular standards will be rebranded and implemented with only a few changes. The bill which was upheld today will give our legislators an overview before new standards are implemented. Fortunately, the current Oklahoma State School Superintendent was defeated in the GOP primary by Joy Hofmeister, and even though we still have the general election to go, we will have fresh new ideas starting in January.

Here is the press release from Jenni White, President of Restore Oklahoma Public Education:

For Immediate Release: The Board members of ROPE would like to thank their attorneys Don and G.K. Powers of Powers at Law, John Paul Jordan, attorney for the Tulsa912Project and all those who donated to fund the amicus briefs filed in support of HB3399. Though the opinion has not been released for publication and is subject to change or revocation, all justices but one, (Gurich) deemed HB3399 CONSTITUTIONAL and therefore no ruling was necessary on severability.
We are so grateful to the justices of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma for ruling in favor of the Oklahoma Constitution and also, by extension, the voice of the people in favor of bureaucracy. We also very much appreciate the excellent work of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office and Solicitor Patrick Wyrick, who did a stellar job as defender of the people in this case.

As ROPE has said for years, the Common Core is not so much about educational standards as educational freedom and the excellence that can result from a parent’s right to direct the education of their child. Educational freedom can not be imparted by a top down system imposing its will upon individuals, it must bubble up from individuals utilizing their voice through their local district school board and, if necessary, their individual state representation. Any level of government by bureaucracy – particularly in education – stifles individual learning and growth.

We now look forward with the happy intent of working with the new superintendent on standards created by OKLAHOMA teachers to elevate OKLAHOMA students to any level they desire to go.