Editor's note: This post was first published on Flypaper on April 29, 2015.
This is the third installment in our Eduwatch 2016 series chronicling the declared presidential candidates’ stances on today’s biggest education issues. I began with editions for Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio. Next up is Ted Cruz, the junior U.S. senator from Texas.
With a midnight tweet on Monday, March 23, Cruz was the first to officially announce his candidacy. He followed that up a few hours later with a half-hour speech at Liberty University. His campaign has emphasized “restoring” America, which includes education. Here’s what he’s said:
1. Education as a foundation: “Education is foundational to every other challenge you've got. If you're looking at issues of crime or poverty or healthcare, if you have education, if you get the foundation of an education, all of those problems by and large can take care of themselves.” March 2014.
2. The Department of Education: “We need to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.” March 2013.
3. Common Core: “We should repeal every word of Common Core....Education is far too important to have it governed by unelected bureaucrats down in Washington....The federal government has no authority to do things like set the curriculum in education. That needs to be at the state level or, even better, at the local level.” March 2015.
4. Curriculum and local control: “If [curriculum is controlled] at the local level, you can go to the [local] school board meeting, and if the curriculum being taught to your kids doesn't make sense, you can make your voice heard, you can speak out and say, ‘This isn't right.’ Every one of us should have control over what's being taught to our kids.” March 2015.
5. School choice: “School choice, in my view, is the civil rights issue of the twenty-first century. It is an issue I have been passionately involved in for decades. And I think it is the right thing to do, but I think it also represents a tremendous opportunity.” March 2015.
6. Broadening school choice: “School choice has been here since the dawn of time. The rich and middle class have always had it. All it is about is giving kids whose parents don't have the resources the same ability to choose an excellent education as the rich and middle class kids.” March 2015.
7. Affirmative action: “Today, by a 7-1 vote, the Supreme Court vacated the lower court ruling [in Fisher v. University of Texas] upholding the University of Texas’s use of racial preferences in admissions. Discriminating because of race is wrong, and this was a victory for our color-blind Constitution. In recent years, universities have made major strides to expand admissions for minorities and low-income students, working hard for the American dream. Universities should continue to do so, expanding opportunity for everyone—but that can be accomplished without discriminating on the basis of race.” June 2013.
8. Financial aid: “Student aid is critically important....In my life, education opened doors for my parents and for me that never would’ve been opened.” September 2012.
9. Financial aid revenue: “We should take the funding, give it to the states, and put the states in the position to make the decisions how to have the greatest impact in their communities.” September 2012.
10. Homeschooling: “Education reform, school choice, and home schooling have been passions of mine for decades….Every parent has a right to educate his or her children—to provide the home, to teach the values that the parents believe are right for their children.” March 2014.
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Two others have said they’re running for the White House—Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul—so I’ll cover them next, unless others declare. From there, I’ll move on to big-name “possible” candidates like Scott Walker and Jeb Bush.
Stay tuned.
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Read what Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki have said about education.
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Note: This post was updated on May 4 to remove Lincoln Chafee's name, who said that his statement, "I'm running," was a mistake.
