While speaking with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on Monday, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) claimed that an effort to make a more uniform framework of standards and benchmarks in schools, Common Core, is actually a plot by the federal government to “indoctrinate” students and breed “socialism.”
Despite the congressman’s suggestion, Common Core was not designed by the federal government but was actually a project of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which wanted to stop states from “lowering standards to make it easier for students to pass tests and for schools to avoid penalties under the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law.”
Bridenstine said Common Core is actually an attempt by the federal government to “control opinions” and weaken American exceptionalism.
You don’t have the federal government controlling opinions and indoctrinating students and teachers with what they want the public to learn, and basically what they want the public to learn is that which is ‘common’ – which is why it’s called Common Core. I believe in exceptionalism and I think what Common Core does is it brings it all down to the lowest common denominator. It’s much like socialism. Socialism has been spreading poverty equally across the world and that’s not what we believe in. We believe in exceptionalism and that’s what our country should be advancing, not commonality.
