Bobby Jindal has almost single-handedly inserted the Common Core into the presidential narrative as a major campaign issue, siding with moms over experts and distinguishing himself from Jeb Bush, as I noted earlier.
Both Christie and Bush appear to have noticed. Christie said in Iowa he now has “grave doubts” about Common Core. And Jeb Bush, fielding softball questions by his former deputy chief of staff Patricia Levesque, tried to move closer to the moms and away from the elites by de-emphasizing the federal government’s role in education, saying that it “ought to be to enhance reform at the local and state level, not to impose it. Because that doesn’t work…They shouldn’t authorize, they shouldn’t coerce people into taking a certain type of test…They shouldn’t mandate or require a certain type of content or curriculum or standards. There should be none of that.”
Will it be enough? Voters will decide, but score one for the moms in moving the debate.
Frank Cannon is the president of American Principles in Action.
