For basically anyone involved in the Common Core State Standards, the road to the implementation of the national education standards has been anything but smooth. The same is true for any Republican hoping to snag the party’s presidential nomination -- and one website has doled out a “report card” on how each candidate is responding to concerns about Common Core.
Recent criticism (especially from the GOP) has caused many primary nominees to avoid the prickly barbs of Common Core.
The report card, from conservative site Pulse2016, took a closer look at how each of the major GOP primary nominees has dealt with the standards. Candidates were graded on three separate issues -- did they speak out and act against Common Core? Do they understand their commitment to protecting state and local education? What have they done to protect students and families against data mining?
The report card attempted to be fair to candidates, giving allowances for what a candidate is in a position to do with regard to Common Core. Governors play a direct role in implementing (or refusing to implement) the standards while senators have either fought to restrict No Child Left Behind or fallen into the clutches of federal education’s goals.
Candidates who aren’t in office can only make general statements for or against the standards.
“As the campaign marches on, however, this wears thin, and follow-on statements on the particulars are needed from all candidates,” read the report.
Unsurprisingly, two of the GOP’s strongest voices against Common Core rose to the top of the list. Anti-Common Core valedictorian and salutatorian were U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rand Paul, R-Ky, both of whom received an “A-.”
Cruz made headlines earlier this year for his comments calling for a full-on repeal of the standards, which he called a “mechanism” to force a “uniform curriculum” in the United States.
“We should repeal every word of Common Core,” he said. “We should get the federal government out of the business of curriculum.”
Paul, too, has had pointed criticisms of the standards. He blasted Common Core for essentially suffocating the possibility for boosting innovation by not having state and local districts develop their own standards.
"If you have a national curriculum and rules, you'll never get to these new ideas," Paul said.
The grades weren’t so good for candidates coming from Florida. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., received a “C” from Pulse2016.
As he’s hit the campaign trail, Rubio’s stood firm against federal intrusion on education. During a recent GOP debate, Rubio warned against Big Education.
“The Department of Education, like every federal agency, will never be satisfied,” Rubio said on Common Core. “They will not stop with it being a suggestion. They will turn it into a mandate. In fact, what they will begin to say to local communities is: ‘You will not get federal money unless you do things the way we want you to do it.’”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush received a failing grade on the report card. Unlike Rubio, Bush has just recently begun to distance himself from the standards, although he hasn’t really dismissed them altogether.
“In my mind, the debate needs to be broader,” said Bush at an education summit in New Hampshire this week. “It needs to be about real accountability, school choice, high standards -- if people don’t like Common Core, fine, just make sure your standards are much higher than the ones you had before. We can’t keep dumbing down standards.”
Bush was one of two candidates -- the other being Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- who received an overall failing grade. In the three grading categories, Pulse2016 gave Bush an “F” for ending the Common Core system and protecting state and local decision-making. He received a “D” for protecting parent and child privacy.
See the full report with a candidate-by-candidate breakdown here.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
