The setting: An education summit in New Hampshire. “John Kasich’s insults of teachers are as disgusting as his policies”, said T.J. Helmstetter, a DNC representative.
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In truth, Bush, a former governor and education advocate, knows more than most about the contentious education standards – and all too well how they’re dogging his White House bid.
“The debate needs to be broader. And when something doesn’t work that we try, we then have to change it”.
Common Core. “What’s that?” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joked Wednesday.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Trump has a double-digit lead over the GOP field in the Granite State, with Bush in second place at 11 percent support, followed closely by Kasich at 10 percent.
Several of the Republican participants had abandoned their support for Common Core and had to explain their newfound opposition.
But he avoided mentioning the controversial math and English standards for students in grades K-12 by name. This year no state legislatures passed legislation to repeal their Common Core standards, despite almost 50 bills nationwide aimed at doing so.
Implementation of higher education standards has been a difficult task, but one that is succeeding thanks to the hard work of educators and policymakers with the courage to stand firm in their conviction.
Scott Walker is using an education forum for Republican presidential contenders to tout his labor union-clashing credentials.
“I want high standards”. School accountability has long been a cause championed by conservatives, and these new assessments will better ensure schools are meeting their responsibility of helping students achieve higher levels.
Ohio Governor John Kasich joined other candidates in criticizing teachers unions, at one point joking that he would abolish teacher’s lounges.
Reflecting on that, it actually makes a lot of sense for a retired Army guy whose three daughters each attended three different high schools and a number of other elementary and middle schools to see the value in these new assessments.
“I can tell when a teacher is supportive of what I’ve done because they lean into me, look both ways and whisper ‘thank you, ‘” he said. The group has booked an estimated $15 million that will be spread across the carve-out states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada.
Each time my family moved because of my career, my wife and I wondered how our girls would compare academically with their new classmates, essentially asking if they would be ahead or behind academically because there were no common education standards from state to state.
Bush has watched his onetime signature issue – education reform – transformed into the thorniest of topics. She called for a “top to bottom audit” of the Department of Education. The standards also aren’t some conspiracy to force children to learn about climate change and evolution; they cover basics in language arts and math. Even so, Republicans in various states are trying to repeal them, in some cases successfully, or to at least defund implementation.
Smith says if Kasich detoured from the campaign trail for a trip to Cleveland schools, he would see how a collaborative effort between the district and the teacher union is working.
Although the standards were developed by state and local officials as a way to measure student achievement nationally, they’ve evolved into a stand-in for federal overreach in education. Consequently, if states do not pursue high education standards on their own-sad as it may be-it is their right to do so. No state is required by the Constitution to have standards “much higher than the ones you had before”.
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Bush’s warning accentuates his persistent failure to acknowledge the reason why Common Core is not acceptable to the conservative base of the Republican Party.
