Carly Fiorina appeared on Laura Ingraham’s radio show earlier in the week and was asked how she would distinguish herself from candidates like Jeb Bush in the primary. A major part of that distinction was the Common Core:
I think that Jeb Bush’s record suggests that he is a big government Republican. I don’t tend to agree with Common Core — you and I have had this conversation before — his answer on Common Core is that, ‘Well it’s not intended to be a heavy-handed bureaucratic program. It’s intended to be a set of nationwide standards.’ Bureaucracies only know one way: It’s called heavy-handed. So if you get a federal bureaucracy, or in some cases even a state bureaucracy, involved in anything, it will become heavy-handed. That’s how we’ve gotten bigger and bigger government under both Republicans and Democrats.
It’s clear that Fiorina understands that the issues with Common Core are not limited to Common Core, but would apply to any federal education program. Fiorina has already emerged as one of Hillary Clinton’s most vocal and effective critics, and it appears that she intends to be a serious critic of Jeb Bush, at least on the issue of Common Core.
Joshua Pinho works for American Principles in Action.
