Every Claim in This Ted Cruz Statement Is Completely False
My favorite undeclared and self be-clowning GOP presidential candidate speaks.
“Why?” you ask, is Ted my favorite? Because few others demonstrate the ignorant and reactionary populism of the modern GOP better: picture a blind paranoid tusk-less elephant trumpeting to stampede the herd because he thought he heard a mouse.
Federal govt has no business sticking its nose in education. We need to repeal every word of Common Core! #nhpolitics #MakeDCListen
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 15, 2015
We reported on the fundamental problem with this tweet: Common core is not a federal law and, therefore, cannot be repealed by the federal government.
At Bloomberg News, Dave Weigel noted that Cruz had been making similar statements for months and sought an explanation. Here is what Cruz’s spokeswoman said:
Common Core is a federally created curriculum that the state’s ‘Race to the Top’ grants are tied to. So if the state does not adopt the standards, it gives up the grant money. But since the federal government created this mess, there should be a way to undo it.
Literally every claim in that statement is false.
First, Common Core is not “federally created.” It was created by the states, on a voluntary basis. As NPR reported, “the federal government played no role in creating the standards, nor did it require that states adopt them.”
Second, Common Core is not a “curriculum.” Federal law actually prohibits the federal government to “to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in an elementary school or secondary school.” Common Core is a set of math and English guidelines that outline a set of skills one should have at the end of each grade. The curriculum used to obtain those skills is left to school districts, schools and teachers.
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