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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education said Friday that a focus on high academic standards, not political motives, was behind its decision to deny Oklahoma the authority to decide how to spend some of the federal education money it receives.
The agency on Thursday refused to grant the state a flexibility waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act over how it spends up to $29 million in federal funding. The Education Department said Oklahoma could no longer prove its 670,000 pupils are leaving high school ready for a college or a career after the state's repeal this year of national Common Core standards for English and math instruction.
Joy Hofmeister, a former Oklahoma Board of Education member who is running for state schools superintendent as a Republican, said federal officials are punishing the state for dropping Common Core. Hofmeister said the decision was based on politics rather than a desire to help Oklahoma children.
"We have a right as a state to chart our own course," Hofmeister said.
But Dorie Nolt, press secretary for the federal education agency, said the repeal of Common Core left the state without college- and-career-ready standards that provide critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
"Oklahoma was unable to demonstrate that its students are learning high standards this year, which the state committed to do," Nolt said in an email to The Associated Press. In its rejection letter to the state Thursday, the department said it expected Oklahoma to resume compliance with higher standards in time for the 2015-16 school year but that it would reconsider its decision if the state adopted such standards sooner.
Oklahoma had adopted Common Core standards for the 2014-2015 school year as part of a nationwide plan to boost performance in math and reading, but legislators ordered them dropped this year. Gov. Mary Fallin signed the bill into law in June.
Conservative groups complained that the standards that had been adopted by Oklahoma and more than 40 other states were an attempt by Democratic President Barack Obama's administration to control state education standards.
But Democratic Rep. Mike Shelton of Oklahoma City, who opposed the repeal of Common Core, said Republican leaders who supported the repeal were motivated by politics.
"Anything they can attach to the president negatively is positive in their party, but it is negative to the state," he said. "They're only worried about the next election, but I truly feel like it's backfiring."
Leaders of state associations that represent school board members, school administrators and suburban school districts said in a statement that denial of the flexibility waiver means schools will have to re-examine their budgets and employment contracts to comply with the No Child Left Behind requirements. Some schools are now using funds to pay salaries instead of devoting them to specific federal guidelines on how the money should be spent.
"Our schools were already invested in it. Most teachers were trained in it," Shelton said. "We as the Legislature and governor have helped lower our standards in Oklahoma."
Other states have also considered dropping the Common Core standards. Indiana dropped the curriculum but adopted a separate set of standards that qualified them Thursday for a flexibility waiver.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal attempted to have his state drop Common Core standards, but legislators and the state education board refused to go along.
Oklahoma lawmakers have directed the state to use guidelines in use in 2010 and adopt new standards by 2016.
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Kissel reported from Little Rock, Arkansas.
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