Education

Why Rubio’s Common Core Attack On Christie Doesn’t Make Sense

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Blake Neff Reporter
Font Size:

During Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate, Marco Rubio had a hot exchange with Chris Christie, claiming the country could not afford to have a president supportive of Common Core. Rubio’s assertion was rather questionable though, and it’s because of a new law he should know about.

“I like Chris Christie, but we cannot afford to have a president of the United States that supports Common Core,” Rubio said. He was attempting to bash Christie for having too many similarities with President Barack Obama, adding that he also backed gun control, donated to Planned Parenthood, and backed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Christie fought back, claiming he had actually “eliminated” Common Core in New Jersey. That claim, as it happens, is only partly true, as New Jersey’s proposed replacement for Common Core is extremely similar to it. (RELATED: New Jersey’s Common Core Replacement Is Pretty Much Just Common Core)

But turning away from Christie’s actions for a moment, Rubio’s initial claim, that the U.S. “cannot afford” a president supportive of Common Core, is very dubious. Regardless of one’s position on Common Core, the country probably can afford a president who supports it, because the presidency now has almost no role in the issue.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed by Congress in December and subsequently signed by Obama, substantially overhauls the relationship between the federal government and state and local schools. One of its major provisions, though, is intended to directly address the debate over Common Core.

“The Secretary [of Education] shall not attempt to influence, incentivize, or coerce State adoption of the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or assessments tied to such standard,” ESSA says. Numerous other parts in the law repeatedly clarify that states can adopt, repeal, or ignore Common Core entirely at their leisure, while the federal government is explicitly barred from influencing them in any way. The shift was the product of hard work by Alabama Republican Rep. Martha Roby, who had originally unsuccessfully pushed for the change via standalone legislation in 2013.

ESSA’s provisions prohibit several methods the Obama administration used to promote Common Core. Under the Race to the Top program, states that adopted Common Core could improve their chances of getting federal funds. Later, states using Common Core were at an advantage when they applied for waivers from No Child Left Behind requirements. Now, those tactics have been made illegal, giving the president essentially zero power to boss states around on the matter of school standards. To the extent the president can influence the issue, it’s only through the power of his personal ability to persuade others.

The only way for such federal interventions to become legal again would be for a new bill overhauling ESSA, which seems very unlikely given the bill’s bipartisan nature. Neither party is eager to overhaul federal education policy for some time.

If Rubio isn’t aware of the change in federal law, it may be because he didn’t vote on the final version of the bill.

Follow Blake on Twitter

Send tips to blake@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel