Common Core Initiative Sees a Divide in the Republican Party

According to a report by The Associated Press, the once-collective effort to improve American education is now driving a wedge within members of the Republican party. At the moment, the US Chamber of Commerce currently leads one group who champions the Common Core Initiative, which aims to standardize education policies in the American school system. On the other hand, several archconservatives led by tea party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are claiming that the education initiative as a means to take total control of local schools.

The establishment group, with possible presidential contender Jeb Bush among them, believe that the Common Core Initiative could help improve waning performance of students in the US, and in the future, create competitive American workers across industries, AP said.

Meanwhile, tea party-aligned candidates and officials proposed the delay or abandonment of the education initiative altogether, calling for 12 of the 45 states who adopted some of the Common Core Initiative's guidelines to stop their implementation. The state of Indiana was considered to be the first one who have legally complied with the appeal, with Governor Mike Pence signing the Common Core repeal to make it into law on Monday.

Hoover Institute research fellow William Evers, who is also the lead author of a California Republican Party resolution denouncing Common Core, said, "Common Core is like Obamacare: They passed it before they knew what was in it."

Bush, on the other hand, said that there is no need to mix politics into solving a society problem in the US. He said last week in Tennessee during a promotion of the Common Core with Republican Governor Bill Haslam, "This is a real-world, grown-up approach to a real crisis that we have, and it's been mired in politics."

Haslam also stated, "These are simply guidelines that say a fourth grader should be learning the same things (regardless of where the student lives). Historically, we haven't been good at setting high standards."

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Common Core Standards Initiative

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