Credit: Louis Freedberg / EdSource

Credit: Louis Freedberg / EdSource

EdSource plans to track the Common Core's role in the 2022 presidential campaign. The post-obit is the first of our occasional reports.

So far, at least, the Common Cadre has non become a major issue in the early on stages of the 2022 presidential campaign.

One reason is surely the result of the near total eclipse of most substantive policy discussions in the GOP presidential contest by the presence and pronouncements of Donald Trump.

But it is also true that it has not come up equally a significant point of discussion in the two major GOP forums in recent weeks – the candidates' forum in New Hampshire on Aug. 3 and the debate dominated by Trump in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Nor has it emerged equally a pregnant issue among Democratic candidates.

In both GOP events, moderators asked Jeb Bush, the candidate who has most explicitly supported the Common Core in the past, about his position, and he deftly sidestepped the question.

On both occasions, Bush-league did not straight endorse the Mutual Core standards; nor did he come out confronting them. Instead, he said he supports college standards merely is against the federal government imposing them – a reference to the assertion that the Common Core was in effect imposed on states because the Obama assistants gave states that adopted them actress points in the competition to become Race To the Top funds beginning in July 2009.

"I don't believe the federal government should be involved in the creation of standards," Bush said in response to a question by moderator Bret Baier in the Cleveland debate, virtually the same response he made in New Hampshire.

Without mentioning the Common Core by proper noun, he pivoted abroad from discussing the standards  to emphasizing his back up for a GOP policy staple – offering parents more choices, which usually includes choices outside public schools. "I'm for higher standards, measured in an intellectually honest way, with arable schoolhouse choice, ending social promotion. And I know how to practice this because as governor of the country of Florida I created the first statewide voucher program in the country, the 2nd statewide voucher program in the country and the tertiary statewide voucher program in the country."

Baier then asked Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to respond. Rubio predicted that the U.S. Section of Education would simply turn the Mutual Cadre into a federal mandate.

Bush was then asked to respond to Rubio's comments, and for the first time in the fence directly referred to the Mutual Core.He made information technology clear that he felt the Common Core should be voluntary, not a federal mandate. "If states want to opt out of Common Core, fine. Just make sure your standards are loftier," Bush said. "If nosotros are going to compete in this world we're in today, there is no possible way we can do it with lowering expectations and dumbing down everything."

This was a more nuanced position than the one he took last Nov when he explicitly backed the Common Core standards and stated that they should be a "minimum standard."

"There is no question we need higher academic standards and — at the local level — diverse, high-quality content and curricula," he said. "And in my view, the rigor of the Common Cadre State Standards must be the new minimum in classrooms. For those states choosing a path other than Common Core, I say this: Aim even higher . . . be bolder . . . raise standards and ask more of our students and the arrangement."

Bush seems to be fugitive using the term Common Cadre wherever possible. At the Iowa State Off-white on Aug. 14 from the Des Moines Annals Soapbox he immune why: "The term 'Common Core' is so darned poisonous, I don't even know what it means," he said.

At an "Education Summit" in New Hampshire hosted by Campbell Brown, the founder and editor-in-chief of The Lxx Four on Aug. nineteen, Bush joked "What'south that?" when he was asked by Dark-brown almost his views on the Common Core. (Encounter this video with Bush's comments on Common Cadre beginning at fifteen:54.)

He again approached the field of study gingerly, sticking to his talking points. "It needs to exist about real accountability, school selection, high standards," he told Dark-brown. "If people don't similar Mutual Core, fine. Simply make sure your standards are much higher than the ones you had before. We can't go along dumbing down standards."

One reason that the Common Core has not become a major effect then far may be that Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has never made support for the Common Core a role of her didactics calendar. In fact, she is not on the record as clearly expressing views in the pro-Common Core camp. Instead, her major focus has been on early on education and preschool. In August she added another issue – a major proposal that would allow a loan-gratuitous higher pedagogy.

One occasion when she addressed the  Common Cadre publicly was in April during her starting time campaign appearance in Iowa after announcing her candidacy. In a round-table give-and-take with a small group of staff and students at Kirkwood Customs College, Diane Temple, a loftier schoolhouse instructor and composition instructor at the college, described the Mutual Core equally " a wonderful step in the correct direction of improving American education. And information technology's painful to see that attacked."

The question gave Clinton an opening to come out conspicuously in favor of the Mutual Cadre. But she chose not to. Instead, she gave a long response that basically said she supported a "core curriculum." She praised the Iowa Core, which the state adopted in 2008 earlier the Common Core was drawn upwards under the custodianship of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Iowa later on adopted the Common Cadre standards in 2010, after educators there ended that in that location was a "high level of similarity" between the Iowa Core and the Common Core.

Clinton did say she institute the fact that the Common Cadre had become a partisan issue "very painful."  She spoke favorably about the rationale behind the Common Cadre that she said was originally intended "to come with a core of learning that nosotros might wait students to reach beyond our country, no matter what kind of schoolhouse commune they were in, no matter how poor their family was, that there wouldn't be ii tiers of education. Everybody would be looking at what was to be learned and doing their best to try to achieve that."

However, she likewise moved rapidly away from talking nigh the Common Core to stressing the importance of providing opportunities for every child — a longstanding theme throughout her political career — which included her early on back up for No Child Left Backside.

Transcripts of recent comments on the Common Cadre

Jeb Bush-league and Marco Rubio on the Common Core in the Trick News debate with GOP presidential candidates in Cleveland on Aug. 6, 2022 (Excerpted from the full Washington Post transcript here):

BRET BAIER (MODERATOR): Governor Bush, you are one of the few people on the stage who advocates for Common Core educational activity standards, reading and math. A lot of people on this phase vigorously oppose federal involvement in didactics. They say it should all exist handled locally. President Obama'south secretarial assistant of education, Arnie Duncan, has said that nearly of the criticism of Common Core is due to a, quote, "fringe group of critics." Practise you think that's accurate?

JEB BUSH: No, I don't. And I don't believe the federal regime should be involved in the creation of standards directly or indirectly, the cosmos of curriculum or content. It is clearly a country responsibility.

I'yard for higher standards measured in an intellectually honest way, with abundant school pick, ending social promotion. And I know how to practise this because as governor of the state of Florida I created the beginning statewide voucher program in the country, the second statewide voucher program, in the country and the third statewide voucher program in the country.

And we had ascension student achievement across the board, because high standards, robust accountability, ending social promotion in 3rd grade, real school choice beyond the board, challenging the teachers wedlock and beating them is the style to get.

And Florida's low-income kids had the greatest gains within the land. Our graduation rate improved by 50 percent. That'south what I'm for.

BAIER: Senator Rubio, why is Governor Bush-league wrong on Common Core?

MARCO RUBIO: Well, offset off, I besides believe in curriculum reform. Information technology is critically important in the 21st Century. We do need curriculum reform. And it should happen at the state and local level. That is where educational policy belongs, considering if a parent is unhappy with what their child is beingness taught in school, they can become to that local school lath or their state legislature, or their governor and go it changed.

Hither'southward the problem with Common Cadre. The Department of Education, similar every federal agency, will never be satisfied. They will non stop with it beingness a suggestion. They volition turn it into a mandate.

In fact, what they will brainstorm to say to local communities is, you will not become federal money unless do you things the way we want you to do information technology. And they will employ Common Core or any other requirements that exists nationally to force it down the throats of our people in our states.

BAIER: And do yous agree with your erstwhile friend?

BUSH: He is definitely my friend. And I recollect the states ought to create these standards. And if states want to opt out of Common Cadre, fine. Just brand sure your standards are high.

Because today in America, a third of our kids, later on we spend more than per student than whatsoever state in the globe other than a couple rounding errors, to exist honest with you, 30 percent are college- and/or career-ready.

Bush: If we are going to compete in this globe nosotros're in today, there is no possible way we tin can do it with lowering expectations and dumbing down everything. Children are going to endure and families' hearts are going to be broken that their kids won't be able to get a job in the 21st Century.

Jeb Bush's Comments at Candidates' Forum in New Hampshire  Aug. three, 2015

JACK HEATH  (MODERATOR): Governor Bush, Common Cadre curriculum has been controversial here in New Hampshire, standards remain controversial… Should state and local schoolhouse boards reject whatever and so-chosen national educational standards?

Bush: They should.  They should.  States ought to create standards, they should exist loftier, they should be state-driven and locally implemented. The federal government should take no role in the creation of standards, no part in the creation, indirectly or directly, in the creation of content or curriculum.

The federal government's role in education ought to be to provide support for states that want reform. Governor Jindal has created some amazing reforms in Louisiana, just yet his Title I coin can't be used to enhance those reforms. So the federal government should not have whatever say as it relates to standards, but we need higher standards, we need robust accountability, school choice, ending social promotion, a comprehensive plan to brand certain that more than than just a 3rd of our kids are college-and-career-ready.

Run into the full video of the event here. (Bush-league's comments are two hours, 2 minutes from the starting time of the video.)

Hillary Clinton's comments on the Common Core when she met with students and staff at Kirkwood Community Higher in Monticello, Iowa in April 2015. (Read the full exchange courtesy of the Washington Post.)

DIANE TEMPLE (Loftier SCHOOL Instructor, Adjunct PROFESSOR): I think the Common Cadre is a wonderful step in the correct direction of improving American instruction. And information technology's painful to run across that attacked. I'm just wondering what can you practice to bring that heart back to education? What can we do then that parents and communities and businesses believe in American education and that teachers are respected and our schools are respected and our colleges are respected? And we offer a quality education to all Americans throughout the U.s.?

HILLARY CLINTON: Wow. That is really a powerful, touching comment that I admittedly comprehend. When I think almost the really unfortunate statement that'southward been going on around Common Cadre, information technology's very painful, because the Common Cadre started off as a bi-partisan effort — it was really nonpartisan. It wasn't politicized, it was to try to come up with a core of learning that nosotros might expect students to achieve across our land, no matter what kind of schoolhouse commune they were in, no thing how poor their family unit was, that at that place wouldn't exist two tiers of education. Everybody would exist looking at what was to be learned and doing their best to effort to attain that. Now I call up function of the reason why Iowa may exist more than understanding of this is you've had the Iowa Core for years, you've had a system, plus the Iowa Assessment tests. I think I'm correct in saying I took those when I was in uncomplicated school, right — the Iowa tests. So Iowa has had a testing system based on a core curriculum for a really long fourth dimension, and you encounter the value of information technology. You lot understand why that helps you organize your whole education organization. And a lot of states, unfortunately, haven't had that, so don't understand the value of a cadre in this sense  a common core that then – yes of class y'all can figure out the best fashion, in your community to try to attain.

But your question is actually a larger one. How did we end upwardly at a indicate where we are so negative well-nigh the virtually important non-family enterprise in the raising of the adjacent generation, which is how our kids are educated? And at that place are a lot of explanations for that, I suppose. Just whatever they are, nosotros need to effort to go back into a broad conversation where people will actually mind to each other again, and try to come up upward with solutions for problems, crusade the problems here in Monticello are non the same issues that y'all'll find in the inner cities in our biggest urban areas – that's a given – we have to do things differently. But it should all be driven by the same commitment to try to brand sure we do brainwash every child. That's why, you lot know, I was a senator and voted for Exit No Child Behind because I thought every kid should affair and it shouldn't be you lot're poor or you have disabilities so we volition sweep you to the back, don't evidence upwardly on exam days so we don't want to mess up our scores. No, every child should take the same opportunity. And and then I think we have got to become back to basics and we take to look to teachers to lead the way on that.

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