Louisiana legislators examine Common Core with Rep. Nelson and Sen. Brecheen


Several lawmakers from Louisiana attended a meeting at the state Capitol last week with state Rep. Jason Nelson and state Sen. Josh Brecheen to learn how Oklahoma used House Bill 3399 to repeal the federal common core standards and establish a process to develop new, superior standards for English and math.

The meeting also included lawmakers from both Colorado and Nevada via teleconference. Nelson said the colleagues in other states want to take a similar 
approach and use it to repeal the federal common core standards in their own states.

“Oklahoma has caught the attention of legislators across the nation, not just for our success in repealing the common core standards, but also because we have put in place a process to replace them with stronger standards,” said Nelson, R-Oklahoma City.

“Our bill was also the most comprehensive of the states that have repealed the standards. They want to know what our process looked like and how we included parents, teachers and grassroots activists to repeal the common core standards and work toward producing better, state-driven standards.”

H.B. 3399 was signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin in June and was upheld by the state Supreme Court in July following a legal challenge over its constitutionality.

“Oklahoma is at the point of the arrow on this important national issue. House Bill 3399 and its results embolden other legislators across the country to assert the Tenth Amendment and ensure our students have standards and tests that are not under the control of federal funding,” said Brecheen, R-Coalgate.

Participants in the meeting included Louisiana state Reps. Brett Geymann, Lance Harris, Cameron Henry, Kenneth Harvard, Bob Hensgens and Roger Pope and Louisiana political activists Kathryn Goppelt, Mary Kass, Sara Wood and Jane Smith.

Following the initial meeting and conference call, a panel discussion was held where Oklahoma activists Jenni White, Carolyn McLarty and Holly Gerard provided details of the successful campaign to the Louisiana delegation.