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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — An unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate is among the plaintiffs suing Missouri officials to stop the state from making payments to a multistate consortium that has been developing tests tied to the new Common Core education standards.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Cole County Circuit Court, calls the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium an "illegal interstate compact not authorized by the U.S. Congress," the Jefferson City News Tribune (http://bit.ly/1qUpezA ) reported.
Nanci Gonder, spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster, said staff doesn't comment on pending litigation.
The plaintiffs include suburban St. Louis businessman Fred Sauer, who was an unsuccessful Republican candidate in the 2012 gubernatorial primary. Two other plaintiffs are identified as Missouri taxpayers and residents. They said they filed the suit to "challenge expenditures of public funds and the potential increased levy in taxes that may result if this controversy is not resolved."
There has been strong pushback to the Common Core standards, particularly among conservatives. The uniform set of benchmarks for reading, writing and math replace a hodgepodge of educational goals that had varied from state to state.
The federal government was not directly involved in the state-led effort to develop them but has used grants and policy waivers to encourage states to adopt them. While proponents say the new standards will better prepare students, critics worry they'll set a national curriculum for public schools rather than letting states decide what is best for their students.
The lawsuit said the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's budget for the 2015 fiscal year includes a $4.3 million allocation to be paid to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, an entity whose existence the plaintiffs claim violates the U.S. Constitution and various "provisions of federal and Missouri law."
"Payments of Missouri funds are being made, or soon will be made, from the State's treasury to SBAC in the form of membership fees and/or in the form of other payments, whether directly or indirectly to SBAC," the suit says.
The suit said Gov. Jay Nixon and Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro, who is resigning at the end of the year, have "engaged in a course of conduct that would have ceded Missouri's sovereignty over educational policy within its borders to SBAC, an interstate consortium operating under the influence of federal regulators located in Washington, DC."
Besides Nixon and Nicastro, the lawsuit named State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, Commissioner of Administration Doug Nelson and the state Board of Education as defendants.
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Information from: Jefferson City News Tribune, http://www.newstribune.com
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