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Common Core opponents who say the Utah State Board of Education illegally took a backdoor approach to adopting the education standards are expected to find out next month whether their lawsuit will move forward.
The board says it did everything by the book, and it asked State Judge Paige Petersen on Tuesday to toss out the case. She plans to rule on Nov. 3.
Opponents of Common Core argued in court Tuesday that the Utah State Board of Education violated the law when it adopted the education standards because it didn't properly consult parents and teachers or get their approval.
State education officials counter that they did follow the rules for adopting the benchmarks in 2010. They asked a judge to toss the lawsuit, saying that the Common Core opponents sued over the issue too quickly, rather than taking it up with the board first.
"Since they haven't done that, the door is closed to this court," said Nicole Call, a lawyer for the State Board of Education. She says local schools still have control over how they teach under the standards.
But lawyers for a group of six parents, teachers and local school board members say that the state board didn't announce their intentions or give people a chance to air any potential problems with the standards. "In our case, the board didn't do anything other than listen to outside interests," attorney Jerry Salcido said.
If they win the lawsuit, the case would send a message to education officials and could lead to public hearings about Common Core, said Connor Boyack, president of the Utah libertarian organization Libertas Institute, which filed the suit.
Common Core was developed by a bipartisan group of governors and state school officials and promoted by President Barack Obama's administration. It was designed to replace a patchwork of education benchmarks around the country, but a conservative backlash has sprung up in Utah and across the country. Opponents call the standards an inappropriate federal overreach.
The standards have sparked protests by parents, teachers and lawmakers in Utah, and last year Gov. Gary Herbert asked the attorney general to review the state's legal commitments. Attorney General Sean Reyes found the adoption of the standards was legal and that the state hasn't lost any authority over its standards or curriculum to the federal government.
Opponents, though, said that review was too narrow and didn't address their concerns that Utah has lost local control of its standards and was coerced into adopting Common Core in order to receive federal grant money, something the state denies.