featured-image
Politics

Some Prominent GOPers See Common Core Support Helping Presidential Contenders

BY January 5, 2015
As potential Republican presidential contenders jockey for position before hitting the campaign trail, there’s been considerable speculation about whether pro-Common Core GOPers can survive that position. But a former aide for Mitt Romney—the most recent winner of the Republican presidential ticket—thinks support for the standards will actually help, not hurt, candidates. In a recent piece on NewsOK, former Romney spokesperson Shawn McCoy points to the midterm election results as a sign of how Core support plays at the ballot box.
There were efforts to unseat candidates who supported Common Core. But governors and state superintendents still overwhelmingly support it. [Former Alabama Republican Gov. Bob] Riley pointed to conservative Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s continued support for the standards. Kasich cruised to victory and even received 26 percent of the black vote.
McCoy goes on to suggest that the Common Core backlash within the Republican Party is rooted in a misperception about the federal government’s role in the creation and implementation of the standards:
Some conservatives attack Common Core as a program created by the Obama administration. The truth is, it was an effort led by states to set minimum standards so that a student graduating in Alabama would have the same basic levels of knowledge as a student graduating in California. Riley and [former U.S. Rep. Harold] Ford point out that the amount spent by companies and colleges on remedial education has skyrocketed in recent years because of different standards across states. Riley said the policy is about local control. “This system allows a local superintendent or an elected board in a small community to determine how to get from point A to point B—Point B being a standard that all governors want to meet. They don’t dictate policy. They don’t dictate textbooks. They don’t dictate how you do it.”
When all is said and done, McCoy concludes, “parents want good policies to help their children succeed,” and many see the Common Core as just that.
Photo by Ken Zirkel, CC-licensed.
Michael Vaughn
Michael Vaughn was the founding Communications Director of Education Post. Prior to that, Mike worked for 18 years in the communications offices of two urban school districts. He served in a variety of communications roles for the Chicago Public Schools starting in 1996, shortly after Mayor Richard M. Daley took control of CPS, and eventually served as the district's Communications Director until ...
View profile

Join the Movement
Take action!