New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came out against Common Core standards Thursday, after supporting them a couple years ago. At Burlington County College in Pemberton, New Jersey, Christie said Common Core standards will reviewed by the end of 2015. New Jersey readopted the Common Core last year.
“It’s time to have standards that are even higher,” Christie said, adding that New Jersey would have to “wrest [power] away from the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”
However, the New Jersey Department of Education has stated that it will still use Common Core-aligned tests, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, tests, so it’s unclear how much those standards would really change.
Christie’s newfound opposition to Common Core stands in contrast to his previous statements on the issue. At a 2013 conference for KIPP Public Charter Schools, Christie said the state would continue with Common Core standards and that the Republican opposition to the standards was based on the president’s support of it.
Christie said, “I think part of the Republican opposition you see in some corners in Congress is a reaction, that knee-jerk reaction that is happening in Washington right now, that if the president likes something the Republicans in Congress don’t. If the Republicans in Congress like something, the president doesn’t.”
He adopted a different tone in February when he said to Republican activists in Iowa, “I have grave concerns about the way this has been done, especially the way the Obama administration has tried to implement it through tying federal funding to these things. And that changes the entire nature of it, from what was initially supposed to be voluntary type system and states could decide on their own to now having federal money tied to it in ways that really, really give me grave concerns. So we’re in the midst of re-examination of it in New Jersey.”
Christie’s new Common Core rhetoric is a reflection of how a general shift in how Republicans discuss Common Core standards, which reframes them as a federal takeover of education and intrusion into family decisions.
Many conservatives have spread the idea that Common Core standards are spreading liberal, and anti-American, ideas. Some of the popular myths on Common Core are that it is an actual curriculum, that it includes sex education and that it was mandated by the federal government. It is not a curriculum, has not been mandated by the federal government and the standards do not include sex education. They also don’t include guidance for history, civics, or social studies curricula.
The Common Core standards efforts were led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Republicans argue it is a “federal takeover” because states received funds from the Race to the Top program, which allowed states to compete for state education incentives that were part of the American Recovery and Restoration Act if they adopted the standards.
The problem with that analysis is that “college and career readiness standards” doesn’t exactly mean Common Core standards, but similarly rigorous standards and historically, both Republican and Democratic administrations have tied funding to education standards and initiatives.
But that hasn’t stopped former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee from officially opposing Common Core standards after he announced his presidential bid after he once vehemently supported the standards. Huckabee went from supporting the standards despite some pushback to making a milquetoast statement on his Facebook page in 2013 that suggested families should have primary control over education to recommending a rebranding of Common Core. Then he firmly opposed Common Core in April.
Jeb Bush has struggled to articulate his Common Core position at times, but has remained the lone declared presidential candidate to support the issue and stand his ground. Rand Paul has strongly opposed Common Core for a long time. You can also count former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among opponents of Common Core standards. Rubio, who, like Paul, suggests eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, has opposed the standards since 2011.
Although it has become a galvanizing issue on the right, a February NBC/Marist poll shows 65 percent of registered voters in Iowa stated that they would find it totally or mostly acceptable for a candidate to support Common Core standards.