Wednesday’s vote, however, may not be the end of the road for the effort to rid the state of Common Core. Critics of the standards have indicated a desire to pursue a ballot measure.
House Bill 1461, sponsored by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, would have tasked a committee appointed by legislators to develop new standards. It also would have required North Dakota to withdraw from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, an organization developing standardized tests based off Common Core.
Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, requested an unusual move to divide the measure into two parts instead of holding a single vote on the entire bill.
The showdown on the House floor lasted nearly an hour and a half before a majority of lawmakers narrowly defeated the section requiring the state to withdraw from the Smarter Balanced consortium. That section failed 43-46 before all 89 members rejected the rest of the bill.
Legislators who wanted North Dakota to remain in the consortium said withdrawing from Smarter Balanced would have conflicted with federal law and could put the state in jeopardy of losing federal funds.
