Oklahoma’s highest court has found that the new law repealing the Common Core State Standards is valid under the state constitution.
The state Supreme Court upheld the law by an 8-1 vote on July 15 after considering oral arguments that same day. The plaintiffs, including members of the state school board who were not acting in their official capacity, argued that House Bill 3399, signed into law June 5 by Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, gave too much power to state legislators.
Under the law, the new standards set to be developed by the state school board will be reviewed by the legislature and must be approved by lawmakers before they can be used in schools. The plaintiffs argued in their complaint, filed June 25, that this usurped the rightful power of the state board to develop and have final say over standards.
This concern was also voiced by the National Association of State Boards of Education before Fallin signed the law.
The state board’s work to develop new standards can now can proceed without a court case hanging over it, but it’s still unclear to what extent the new standards will resemble the common core. (The law required the state to drop the common core immediately and revert to the state’s prior academic standards.)