Former Arkansas governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited the Lifehouse Community Church in Iowa on Tuesday to take questions from an audience mostly made up of homeschooling parents. In a video of the session captured by the Iowa conservative blog Caffeinated Thoughts, Huckabee fielded a question about the presence of International Baccalaureate programs, in which students earn an internationally recognized degree, in public schools in Iowa.
The audience member asked Huckabee if he was familiar with IB programs, to which he responded that he was not. The questioner explained to Huckabee that IB programs “[take] away American history and [put] in world history.” Huckabee responded by asserting that parents in Iowa need to “rise up and scream bloody murder” in opposition to these programs and that he “can’t imagine” a program like that, which the questioner emphasized is subsidized by the state.
While Huckabee’s comments may fit with his rhetoric, they do not fit with his record. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee signed a law sanctioning International Baccalaureate programs in Arkansas high schools, placing them on the same level as Advanced Placement courses and providing subsidies for schools that offer IB courses.
