Even the mainstream media in Florida is acknowledging that Common Core is a poison pill of a political issue that helped bring down Jeb Bush’s chances to be president. The Tampa Bay Times also questions Rubio is really talking straight about his opposition to Common Core:
Marco Rubio has been attacking Chris Christie over Common Core and yesterday went after Jeb Bush, saying the former governor was ‘nowhere to be found’ when Republicans were fighting Obama’s agenda and spent most of his time traveling the country trying to push’ the education standards.
Bush’s support is clear as is the damage it has done to him in the presidential race. But while Rubio never advocated for Common Core, he was a proponent of the building blocks.
Bush on Thursday noted that Rubio had supported Race to the Top, the federal program that incentivized states to adopt Common Core. ‘I think that’s a good idea,’ Rubio said in 2009. He did stress, however, that he felt “education is a state function, best regulated and governed at the state level.”
That year Rubio also praised Obama’s hire of Arne Duncan as education secretary, calling him an ‘innovator’ while praising the federal government’s effort ‘encouraging’ states to adopt curriculums ‘that reflect the 21st Century.’
Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project.
