Common Core Supporters Got Slaughtered in Midterms

It seems like there’s nothing but bad news for
the Common Core these days, and the midterm elections were no
exception. Candidates who oppose the national education standards
won big on Tuesday, from high-profile gubernatorial contests to
local school district fights.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R),
both opponents of education standards, survived tough races. Their
opponents, Democrats Mary Burke and Charlie Crist, were big
supporters of Common Core who attempted to use the issue in the
campaign.  Burke told the
Journal Sentinel in September:

“We absolutely need higher standards in Wisconsin — we are
currently 38th in the country in terms of proficiency standards —
and implementing Common Core correctly will do just that.”

Voters disagreed—not just in Wisconsin and Florida, but
everywhere. Several local races—most notably in Arizona and South
Carolina—revolved around candidates who promised to either reject
or embrace Common Core. As
The Daily Signal noted, the anti-Core folks won each
time:

Voters resoundingly sided with candidates who both rejected
Common Core national standards and tests and promised to restore
state and local control of education. …

Richard Woods, who will become Georgia’s new state
superintendent, also campaigned on an anti-Common Core platform and
has pledged to work to create Georgia-based curriculum
standards.

And in South Carolina, which withdrew from Common Core earlier
this year and already has planned to write its own standards, Molly
Spearman, an anti-Common Core candidate, won her bid for state
superintendent.

The potential for Arizona and Georgia to reject Common Core and
forge a new path forward is particularly notable.

Education administrators and executives in the various states
are increasingly against Common Core. Nationally, things are just
as bad for the standards. The Senate is brimming with potential
Republican presidential contenders who all oppose Common Core,
including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. Some of them have
signed on to a bill that would
instruct the federal government to stop pushing states to stick
with the standards. And Sen. Lamar Alexander, who will head the
Senate Education Committee now that Republicans have the majority,
supports that effort.

Candidates who support Common Core were forced to downplay their
position or even walk it back entirely. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
did manage to defeat his Core-trashing opponent, but only after the
governor
released an ad promising to delay counting Core-aligned testing
until New Yorkers were ready for it, or indefinitely.

It’s a stunning reversal of fortune for Common Core, which was
enacted in 45 of the 50 states years ago, before people knew much
about it. The more they learn, the less they like it—and
politicians have taken notice. That should be welcome news for
libertarians, and for anyone who believes national standardization
is precisely the wrong way to improve America’s schools. Whether
states will abandon Common Core en masse any time soon remains to
be seen, but a few more elections like this one could certainly tip
the scales.

More from Reason on Common Core here.