Legal battle heats up over state education standards

Oral arguments will be heard on July 15 in the Oklahoma Supreme Court in a lawsuit challenging the law that repealed the educational standard known as Common Core.

The parties who filed the suit, a group of parents, teachers and now state school board members, say the law is unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the state has been told to revert to using the old standards, PASS, used before Common Core.

KRMG talked to Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard, who said the legal mess is unfortunate, but that TPS will follow the law.

“We will certainly make sure that we get the PASS standards met.” Dr. Ballard said.

But he continued to say that PASS is not up to par for what the district wants.

“The PASS standards are old standards and we wanted to move to a more rigorous set of standards.” Ballard added.

As the lawsuit begins, teachers must prepare for the upcoming school year assuming that the old set of standards used for several years before Common Core will be the ones they will follow.