JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – A Missouri education panel tasked with reviewing the state’s learning standards for schoolchildren is bucking House Speaker Tim Jones and keeping an appointee he removed.

Members voted 7-5 Tuesday to keep Columbia schools language arts coordinator Nick Kremer. Jones earlier that day sent him a letter saying he doesn’t have the required 10 years’ experience.

The work groups are reviewing the national Common Core education standards currently in place. Some lawmakers pushed for the review hoping it would mean replacing the Common Core.

Those standards have been a magnet for critics who say they take away state control over education.

Chair Keri Skeeters calls Kremer’s removal a disruption to the group’s work to review English standards. The groups have been meeting since September.