Support for Common Core Continues to Slide

Karen R. Effrem, MD - Executive Director

New polling data continues to show that as more people, especially parents and even business people, find out about Common Core, support for those awful standards continues to decline.  This verifies data we have previously presented.
A June 26th Rasmussen poll shows:
"...just 34% of American Adults with children of elementary or secondary school age now favor requiring all schools nationwide to meet the same Common Core education standards. That's an 18-point drop from 52% in early November of last year. Forty-seven percent (47%) oppose the imposition of the national standards, compared to 32% in the previous survey. Little changed are the 19% who are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)"


And a Pew Research poll shows that Common Core is strongly opposed both by "Steadfast" (social, Tea Party) Conservatives and "Business" (Establishment) Conservatives.

"The two solidly-Republican groups, Steadfast and Business Conservatives, oppose Common Core by more than two-to-one (61%-25% and 61%-23%, respectively)."


Here is some analysis by writer Libby Nelson on the blog Vox:

"Supporters might hope otherwise, but the fight in the Republican Party is over and the standards have lost...

...This is a huge failure for the US Chamber of Commerce. The group spent much of the past year making a case for the standards from a business perspective.
The chamber argued that high, uniform expectations in math and language arts will produce better workers and a stronger economy. They made slick videos. They published op-eds. Yet they failed to convince even their core constituency -- business conservatives...

...This is very bad news for the standards' supporters. Right-leaning supporters of Common Core say the standards are a state issue, created for states and by states (and that they wish Education Secretary Arne Duncan would stop talking about them). Opponents argue that the US Education Department's efforts to get states to adopt the standards are an example of federal overreach.

Pew makes it clear: The opponents won. No matter how much supporters talk about state-led initiatives, the standards have been defined.
 

Those two results when combined and added to the previous polling data and the continued abandonment of Common Core by Republican governors Jindal, Fallin, and Hayley should provide devastating blows to Common Core proponents like Jeb Bush and the Chamber of Commerce.  Nelson was mixed in her review of the effect on Bush:
 

That doesn't mean Jeb Bush's Common Core support will derail his national aspirations. Pew found the former Florida governor is broadly popular among both business conservatives (63 percent favorability) and steadfast conservatives (60 percent favorability). John McCain and Mitt Romney, among others, could tell you that a candidate doesn't need to agree with his party on everything to win the nomination.

But now Bush's support for the Common Core can't be waved away as picking a side in an active intraparty controversy. Bush is backing an initiative that his party broadly opposes. Jindal didn't turn on the Common Core to burnish his credentials with the most conservative Republicans. He did it to win over the mainstream. (Emphasis added).

Both Pew and Real Clear Politics show that no one potential Republican 2016 presidential candidate is standing out right now and there are not many differences in the favorability/unfavorability ratings between Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal or the rest.  Time will tell if the Twitter hashtag #StopJebNow and the almost universal opposition to Bush's presidential aspirations from parents and other activists in the anti-Common Core movement will continue to grow.

Posted in Political Aspects of Common Core. Tagged as , Chamber of Commerce, Common Core, Jeb Bush, Pew Research, Rand Paul, Rasmussen, Ted Cruz.

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