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BESE joins lawsuit challenging Jindal

by Patrick Flanagan

Louisiana's state school board has jumped into a lawsuit against Gov. Bobby Jindal that accuses the governor of illegally meddling in education policy through his efforts to block Common Core education standards.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana's state school board has jumped into a lawsuit against Gov. Bobby Jindal that accuses the governor of illegally meddling in education policy through his efforts to block Common Core education standards.

The vote to join the lawsuit was 6-4 Tuesday by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Two of Jindal's three board appointees agreed to sue the governor.

Board President Chas Roemer says the lawsuit is about BESE's constitutional role to set education policy in Louisiana.

At issue is Jindal's suspension of testing contracts the education department intended to use to buy testing material aligned with Common Core. Jindal opposes the standards as a federal intrusion into education policy.

In a statement, Jindal said he hopes BESE members will reconsider their commitment to Common Core and its testing.