Senator Ted Cruz spoke out against Common Core during a speech to a Florida conservative organization. “We should repeal every word of Common Core,” he said. “We should get the federal government out of the business of curriculum.” This was not the first time Cruz said “no” to Common Core, but it was a great opportunity for the presidential hopeful to express his steadfast opposition to the progressive education reform movement standards. Cruz’ remarks came one day after his potential GOP presidential rival, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, endorsed Common Core.
Cruz described Common Core as “national standards being dictated from Washington” during an appearance at the influential anti-tax Club for Growth’s annual winter meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, February 27, ABC News reported.
“There is no remedy when they are dictating what’s being taught to your kids,” said the Senator. His comments stood in stark contrast to those from Bush, who told the same group that the education goals would help more students be prepared for college or better jobs, also according to ABC News.
Breitbart News reported that at the annual suburban Washington, DC-held Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Bush stood by his support for Common Core. He claimed that the standards were not a federal government takeover of education.
Cruz, on the other hand, has been consistently and emphatically opposed to the Common Core. He is also the lead cosponsor of the Enhancing Educational Opportunities for All Act, a measure introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) that hopes to expand school choice, Breitbart News reported.
On February 21, Cruz appeared on Shark Tank where he spoke out against Big Education. He said “It is wrong and we need to stand up against Common Core and stop it.”
The popular conservative US senator from Texas emphasized that “education is far too important for it to be controlled by unelected bureaucrats in Washington,” while pointing to his own young daughters Caroline, 6, and Catherine, 4. The Senator said he understood how other parents felt about their children’s schooling, commenting that education “needs to be at the state level or the local level where we as parents have direct control over the standards, over the mores, over the curriculum that is being taught to our kids.”
He added, “Common Core is being used by the federal government as a mechanism to force a uniform curriculum, to put federal bureaucrats in charge of what is taught to our kids.”
Cruz believed that the only way to stop Common Core, or even change the direction of the United States from the lawless path it is currently on under the Obama administration, may rest with the grassroots. He reiterated a comment he has said before, “If we look to Washington for the solution, these problems will not be solved.” Soberingly, he stated, “Washington is fundamentally broken.”
Cruz pointed out that part of the reason why the Stop Common Core movement has gained so much momentum is because “a whole bunch of Republicans joined with a whole bunch of Democrats (who) agree that the federal government shouldn’t stick its nose in the middle of education.”
The Senator added that the biggest divide in America today isn’t between Americans in the two political parties. But rather, he said it is between career politicians in both parties and the American people. He suggested that the only way to reverse Common Core is for grassroots movements all over this country to rise up and say ‘enough is enough.” He said constituents should be holding their elected officials accountable — Republican and Democrat.
During the Shark Tank interview, Cruz drew parallels between presidents Carter and Obama, alluding to another time in history when a grassroots movement arose out of frustration with leadership and the direction of the nation. He was referring to the Reagan Revolution.
The controversial Common Core standards are often positioned by supporters as voluntary and state led. The federal government’s role; however, has been central to the implementation of standards that have been nicknamed “Obamacare for Education,” which Breitbart California reported.
Last year, Cruz expressed his opposition to the federal education standards following an event for the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators, Breitbart News reported. At that time, he called school choice the “civil rights issue of the 21st Century.”
Cruz, is one on the lengthy list of 2016 potential GOP presidential candidates that includes Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Dr. Ben Carson, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).
Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.
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