Hillary Clinton: ‘Very Painful’ to See Common Core ‘Politicized’

In Iowa Tuesday, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton set out a “new vision” for education in America which includes support for the Common Core standards, a position that puts her at odds with the nation’s teachers’ unions and has her siding with big government establishment Democrats who support teacher evaluations based on student performance on Common Core-aligned tests.

According to the Washington Examiner, Clinton, during a roundtable discussion panel of students and educators at an Iowa campaign event, said it was “very painful” to see the “really unfortunate” argument surrounding Common Core since it began as a “bipartisan effort … actually, nonpartisan” project.

“It wasn’t politicized,” Clinton said. “It was about coming up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country, no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was. That there wouldn’t be two tiers of education.”

Bustle reported Clinton launched her discussion about her education agenda by latching on to President Obama’s free community college initiative.

“Education remains the best way [to succeed in America],” Clinton told “We have to get back to making it affordable to people who want it and are willing to work for it.”

Striking a tone as America’s “grandma,” Clinton said of her new granddaughter, “I don’t know how many babies were born on September 26 last year, but I want every single one of them to have the same educational opportunities as Charlotte.”

Clinton was asked during the event whether she reads books to her granddaughter.

“My granddaughter’s first words are going to be ‘Stop that’… that poor child,” she laughed.

Bustle states Clinton said she has not questioned her belief in the principles of the Common Core standards, and said those who attack the education reform initiative are simply having a hard time adjusting to a new way of doing things.

“We need a new vision—a new paradigm— of what education is,” she said. “When you talk about American innovation, you need to look at community colleges [as an option],” she said. “Maybe someone’s better at working with their hands [than studying in a classroom] … focus on what works and see what fits.”

Clinton’s focus on community college is on par with lead writer of the Common Core math standards Jason Zimba, who admitted that the Common Core standards would not prepare students for STEM or selective four-year colleges.

Marina Ratner, renowned Professor Emerita of mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote last year in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that she learned of Zimba’s admission and subsequently discovered for herself that Common Core’s math standards are “vastly inferior to the old California standards in rigor, depth and the scope of topics.”

“Many topics – for instance, calculus and pre-calculus, about half of algebra II and parts of geometry – were taken out and many were moved to higher grades,” Ratner wrote. “It became clear that the new standards represent lower expectations and that students taught in the way that these standards require would have little chance of being admitted to even an average college and would certainly struggle if they did get in.”

Establishment elite politicians, some education gurus, and Clinton’s Wall Street donors, however, are on board with the Common Core, believing the reform will play very heavily into a workforce development scheme that will ensure a source of inexpensive lower level labor that will be living right here in the United States for years to come. In fact, the student data collection associated with the education initiative is the basis of the relationship between Common Core and amnesty for illegal immigrants, a relationship that took solid shape in the 1990’s when Hillary Clinton’s husband was running for president. Supporters of the Common Core standards are also advocates for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Though Clinton clearly seems to be favoring the Common Core standards, she also said, “We have to look to teachers to lead the way,” a statement that suggests a necessary bone tossed to teachers’ unions as well and underscores the tension between the two opposing camps of the Democrat Party on the issue. However, it also emphasizes that, just as those she criticized, Clinton is also politicizing the Common Core.