On its Fox News show, The Wall Street Journal editorial board referred to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as “very, very conservative” and expressed disbelief that conservative voters are not getting behind him as a presidential contender.
On the Journal Editorial Report, editors warned conservatives the Republican Party would have trouble competing for the White House if they did not consider Bush a potential nominee.
Watch:
Editor Paul Gigot referred to Bush as a “reformer” on education and taxes.
He was a “very, very conservative governor in Florida; he cut taxes like Ronald Reagan did,” said Dan Henninger.
Henninger added:
So if conservatives generally are going to say that if – because – he said something about, or supported Common Core, or they don’t like something he said about immigration, therefore, he can’t even consider being a nominee, then the Republican Party is going to have a big problem.
Bret Stephens observed that Bush won 60 percent of the Latino vote in Florida.
“I think Republicans have to get wise to the idea that that is a very important consideration, if they are going to retake the White House,” Stephens continued.
Polls have repeatedly shown that support for the Common Core standards has plummeted, especially among Republican parents, and that as more parents and citizens learn about the standards, they disapprove of them.
Additionally, many Republican politicians have had to distance themselves from the Common Core to win election or re-election last month.
As Breitbart Texas reported recently, U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R), who plans to run for governor of Louisiana next year, announced a complete turnabout on his prior support for the controversial initiative. The Senator had alarmed his conservative supporters in August with his strong advocacy for Common Core.
“After listening to literally thousands of parents, teachers, and others … I don’t believe that we can achieve that Louisiana control, buy-in, and success I’m committed to if we stay in Common Core,” Vitter said in an email statement.
Vitter added, “Common Core is controlled by national groups and interests outside Louisiana. And many Louisianans legitimately fear that it will become a federal government takeover of education under President Obama and his far-left allies.”
As Breitbart News reported Saturday, Bush is the founder and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), a national group that promotes the Common Core standards and is the recipient of funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary private backer of the education initiative, and from News Corporation (News Corp), which owns The Wall Street Journal.
Donors to FEE also include mega textbook publisher Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Scholastic – all publishers that are poised to make billions off the sale of textbooks that are aligned with the Common Core standards.
Technology companies also stand to benefit from the online assessments and student data collection associated with the Common Core standards.
Former New York City schools chancellor, Joel Klein, now CEO of Amplify, a digital learning subsidiary of News Corp is a member of FEE’s board of directors.