Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, trying to tamp down conservative criticism over his support for Common Core, told thousands of activists on Friday that he opposes the federal government pushing any kind of educational standards on states, as President Obama’s Department of Education has been doing.
“This president, and this Department of Education, there’s a risk that they will intrude, and they have as it relates to Race to the Top,” Bush said as he spoke to the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“What we should say, quite clearly, in the reauthorization of the K-12 law … is to say, ‘the federal government has no role in the creation of standards, either directly or indirectly. The federal government has no role in creation of either curriculum or content. The federal government should have no access to student ID or student information. That the role of the federal government, if there’s any, is to provide incentives for more school choice. Take the Title I money … if states want to innovate with their own programs, give them money to let them create their own programs.’ That is a better approach.”
Under Race to the Top, the federal government gave states taxpayer funding for adopting Common Core and other education reforms preferred by the Department of Education. The Obama administration also pressured states into adopting Common Core by attaching the standards to waivers from the burdens of No Child Left Behind.
Bush’s enthusiastic support for the Common Core educational standards is likely to be among the leading obstacles in his likely bid for the Republican presidential nomination — and stands as one of the examples of him being out of touch with conservatives.
Fox News host Sean Hannity noted during the question and answer session that Bush instituted the first statewide voucher program. Hannity then asked Bush to address the issue of Common Core. Bush defended his support of Common Core by saying it was part of comprehensive education reform.
“High standards by themselves aren’t meaningful,” Bush said. “They’re helpful, they’re better than lower standards, but by themselves if there’s no accountability around this, if there’s no consequence between mediocrity and failure or excellence, than the system won’t move forward. In Florida, we took a comprehensive approach. Yes, we did have the first statewide voucher program and we have more school choice in Florida, both public and private, than any state in the country, and we have the largest virtual schools. We have the largest … tax scholarship program. We have 30,000 students that if their parents, if their child has a learning disability, they can take the dollars, the state and local dollars, and send them to any private school of their choice … We did all this, and we raised standards. And my belief is, our standards have to be high enough where a student going through our system is college or career ready. And that’s not what’s happening right now.”
Bush was criticized at CPAC earlier in the day by Donald Trump for supporting Common Core. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum all expressed opposition to Common Core in addresses at CPAC.
