Kasich only GOP candidate backing Common Core

Trump and Cruz reject the state-run academic criteria.

WASHINGTON — Congress passed, with broad bipartisan support, an education law that specifically says the federal government cannot push academic standards such as Common Core or give incentives to states that adopt them. On top of that, Common Core standards were established by state governors, not Washington.

So is the talk on the campaign trail about killing Common Core just that — talk?

Of the three remaining GOP presidential candidates, only Ohio Gov. John Kasich supports the rigorous academic standards.

The others are vehement in their opposition.

“We’re getting rid of Common Core,” Donald Trump said during a debate in early this month.

At the most recent debate, March 10 in Miami, he said: “I want local education. I want the parents, and I want all of the teachers, and I want everybody to get together around a school and to make education great.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, too, is opposed to Common Core. At the Miami debate, he said, “Common Core is a disaster. And if I am elected president, in the first days as president I will direct the Department of Education that Common Core ends that day.”

What they fail to mention is that Common Core began as a state-driven campaign to raise learning standards. Launched in 2009, the idea was to embrace learning goals by grade across all 50 states to make sure kids in Iowa were on track and receiving a quality education along with students in California, Maine and elsewhere.

It was a project of governors and state school chiefs.

Much of the backlash against Common Core began when the federal government, through its Race to the Top program, started giving education grants to states that adopted higher academic standards. That grant money has run its course, and the new education law bars future use of incentives for embracing Common Core or any standards. Even with Race to the Top, there was no federal mandate to adopt Common Core.

Chad Aldeman, an associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners, says this notion that the federal government “must stop” Common Core runs contrary to the long-held Republican position that governance of public schools is a state issue.. “There’s really nothing that they could do to stop Common Core ... .”

The education law passed Congress in December with overwhelming support from both parties. The law revamps the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act and substantially limits the federal government’s role in public schools, including its powers to push academic standards.