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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — In his efforts to remove the Common Core education standards from Louisiana's public schools, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced several actions Wednesday, saying he:
—Issued an executive order that requires the state education department to conduct a competitive bid process to purchase new standardized tests, an effort that Jindal said will keep the department from using its planned test tied to Common Core.
—Sent a letter to the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, seeking state withdrawal from the consortium and saying the state "is no longer committed" to use its standardized tests, which are linked to Common Core.
—Suspended rules adopted by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in May involving the implementation of the PARCC testing.
—Notified the Council for Chief State School Officers and the National Governor's Association that Louisiana was ending its participation in the Common Core State Standards.
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The Department of Education said the governor's efforts won't derail Louisiana's use of the Common Core standards or the PARCC tests and issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the governor's actions. The department says:
—It doesn't need to do a new bid for standardized tests and can use an existing contract to purchase the PARCC test questions and answers. (But the Jindal administration replied by saying it intends to suspend that contract, and the education department was researching its legal options.)
—Jindal can't withdraw Louisiana from the PARCC consortium without agreement from the education superintendent and the chairman of the state education board, both of whom support Common Core.
—Jindal's suspension of the rules passed by BESE has no effect on the state's ability to implement the Common Core standards or the PARCC tests.
—The governor doesn't have the authority to unilaterally end Louisiana's participation in the Common Core standards, because state law gives that authority to the education department and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
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