Common Core: a Major Deciding Factor for Independent Voters in 2016

On the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, a panel, moderated by Sabrina Schaeffer of the Independent Women’s Forum, met to discuss what’s next for Common Core. Their conclusion: Common Core will be a very important platform stance in the 2016 election. They are completely right.

With public support for Common Core standards steadily declining, and more and more states pulling out of Common Core, in addition to teachers resigning over the federal standards, attitudes towards a single policy have never been more clear and uniform. Teachers hate having their freedom to teach restricted, parents want their children to be taught, not taught how to take a test, and children want to be treated like individuals, not statistics. Recent protests of the standards and walkouts on Common Core testing have indicated that increasing opposition to Common Core will not be silenced, and will not go away.

Many independent voters with their children’s best interests at heart will be looking to 2016 candidates with opposition to Common Core as a major factor in their decision. Voters want a candidate who recognizes that their children and their students have different strengths, learning styles, interests, and abilities. During the panel at CPAC, Emmet McGroarty of the American Principles Project suggested that support of Common Core would be a stance that Hillary Clinton would undoubtedly use against a Republican opponent, making the election extremely difficult to win for the Republican nominee.

Jeb Bush has been vocal about his support for Common Core.