Megyn Kelly hosted Senator Ted Cruz to get his take on Jeb Bush’s defense of his ongoing support for the Common Core State Standards.  Cruz described himself as “a fan” and gave Bush credit for his integrity, but pointed out that the federal government is too involved in the standards through Race to the Top incentives which reduce local control of education (segment begins at 4:18):

Kelly:  Common Core.  He’s going to stand on that as raising American standards.  You see it a bit differently.

Cruz:  I do, I think we should repeal every single word of Common Core.  The reason is I think education is far more important for it to be governed by unelected bureaucrats in Washington.  It should be at the state level or better the local level…

Kelly:  But it is.  The response to that is that governors got together to push this through.

Cruz:  But Megyn that’s not how it works.  The Obama administration had used money, federal money, to force states to adopt Common Core standards.

Kelly:  But can’t they bail out if they don’t want to be a part of it?

Cruz:  Well sure they can, but there are a lot of dollars connected to it.  The federal government, it’s sort of like the drug dealer that goes to junior high and gets the kid hooked saying “just try it once.”  The federal government has offered the states these dollars and there’s so many strings attached.

Nick Arnold is a researcher for American Principles in Action.