A non-binding amendment introduced by Republican Senator of Louisiana David Vitter–referred to as the Local Control of Education act– was approved last week in a long and drawn out voting session on the Senate budget resolution, which forbids the federal government “from mandating, incentivizing or coercing states to adopt the Common Core State Standards.”
Vitter, campaigning to be governor of Louisiana in 2016, joined guest hosts Breitbart senior investigative reporter, Matt Boyle, and senior editor, Katie McHugh, on Breitbart News Saturday on Sirius XM, Patriot radio, channel 125 to discuss the importance of blocking Common Core from becoming a reality in America’s classrooms.
Vitter explained that the new amendment attached to the budget “is pushing back hard against general overreach and federal actions trying to mandate Common Core standards.” The New Orleans native added, that efforts by the federal government to seize more and more control over education has been going on for a long time. However, “particularly under the Obama administration” efforts have accelerated greatly.
Boyle asked Vitter, “Why do we need to fight Common Core? What is it that is so bad about the Common Core standards?” Vitter answered saying that he “strongly supports rigor and standards, we need that in Louisiana, we need that in every state. But, ceding all of our authority to national elites and letting the federal government ally with them, to tell states exactly what they need to do, is not the solution.”
The 53-year old senator doesn’t believe Common Core fosters rigor and standards. “When you have a system designed and controlled by national elites, inevitably you have political correctness and other agendas creeping into it. We have seen this in clear cases in regard to Common Core,” Vitter observed.
The gubernatorial aspirant said that his campaign, contrarily, endorses rigor and standards in education. As far as letting the federal government enforce educational standards, “absolutely not,” he insists.
Vitter emphasizes that teachers and parents need to be empowered in the educational process, which becomes disrupted when federal bureaucrats and national experts get involved. “Kids are going to thrive and prosper and learn with good parents and teachers being very involved and proactive.”
Eradicating Common Core will play a large role in Vitter’s campaign for governor in 2016, the senior senator affirmed. Common Core is a microcosm for what is wrong with federal government, Vitter contends.
“Common Core is all about the fundamental issue of our time: the size and scope and power of the federal government,” he asserted. “American education has been marked by local control since the beginning. We have never had a super bureaucracy dominating education until the department of education. Since its inception its power has grown and grown and grown.”
Senator Vitter aims to get America back to more local control of education, while still maintaining rigor and standards.