Huckabee: ‘We Need High Standards, but We Don’t Need Common Core’

BREAM: “OK, very quickly on Common Core. You wrote a letter to Oklahoma lawmakers back in 2013 calling it ‘near and dear to your heart.’ You also went on to say, ‘like many of you, I’ve heard the argument these standards threaten local control of what’s being taught in Oklahoma classrooms. Speaking from one conservative to another, let me assure you this simply is not true.’ Do you now believe it is?”

HUCKABEE: “Yes, Common Core has changed dramatically. It’s gotten federal fingers all over it and it’s ruined it. And everybody, I think, now realizes that it was an idea about standards that would be the state level. Now it’s gotten into federal control. It went beyond the basic things of language arts and math and it needs to be eradicated. It’s become a cancer instead of a cause. So, unfortunately, a lot of people want to use this to get rid of all standards. I hope not. We need high standards, but we don’t need Common Core and we do need to get rid of it.”