Most Republican presidential candidates have come out against the controversial Common Core State Standards, but not all of them have gotten onboard with one Florida group’s pledge to officially repeal the standards should they win the 2016 presidential race.
Florida Parents Against Common Core, a statewide group of parents, opted to start at the top of the political chain to eradicate Common Core after Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Department of Education failed to repeal the standards.
At the end of October, the group sent each candidate attending the Republican Party of Florida’s Sunshine Summit to put their money where their mouths are and sign the pledge saying they would end the federal implementation of the standards if elected president.
“I know that in general terms, [the candidates] are against Common Core, but we want to drive this away from just talking about being against it to taking some definitive action,” FPACC President Luz Gonzalez told Sunshine State News. “It has to be both parts. It can’t just be ‘say I’m against it.’ That’s not enough for us anymore.”
The group reached out to all of the GOP candidates attending the summit, which included some of the most vocal opponents against the standards including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Dr. Ben Carson.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, told the group he wouldn’t sign the pledge. Ben Carson told FPACC he would get back to them on whether he would sign the pledge, but ultimately never ended up signing it at all.
All other candidates were totally silent.
“Sometimes...it’s kind of funny, it’s a contrary nature of politics, especially grassroots politics...people that believe in bottom up leadership,” Gonzalez said. “On one side of the angle they say everybody matters...but if you don’t use insider information... [and resources] you don’t get what you want. And I intentionally did not do that.”
Gonzalez herself is a campaign chair for Rubio in Miami-Dade County, but decided against using her connection to the senator to get him to sign the petition.
“On an ethical issue...I was going to give equal opportunity to all as if...there was a grassroots movement of parents trying to get this commitment from our candidates,” she told SSN.
Cofounder of FPACC Laura Zorc attended the Sunshine Summit in Orlando, but said she had a difficult time reaching the candidates despite the group reaching out to candidates and their staff before the summit.
“[The candidates] just weren’t accessible,” explained Zorc. “They went straight from the stage into the press room and from the press room into their private receptions, so I could never get access to any of the candidates.”
Sen. Cruz, however, offered to sign the petition beforehand. The group did not receive any similar contact from any of the other candidates.
Several candidates mentioned Common Core in their speeches to an audience of 2,000 attendees.
“The federal government wasn’t supposed to be involved in K-12 education,” said Marco Rubio. “That’s why we don’t need Common Core.”
Rubio did not sign the group’s petition.
Gonzalez told SSN that FPACC would continue to push the issue of having a national conversation about education going into 2016.
“I think at some point our state leaders have to be more onboard,” she explained. “I think as we are going into the next few months, we are going to hit hard [on state leadership]. It is critical [in the presidential race]. It affects the future of our country.”
