8 GOP presidential candidates and their views on education
Some of the Republican Party’s most promising presidential candidates in 2016 are governors or former governors running on their executive experience. Unlike senators, whose experience typically consists of votes and position statements, governors have to govern, leaving a record of hard choices, hurt feelings and other debris behind. That record of choices provides a window into a candidate’s core values and leadership style that is hard to get from a senator.
Education makes a fruitful field for observing a governor’s track record, since education funding and policy is a core function of any state government. Here is a quick look at the education track records of eight former governors who are announced or likely GOP presidential candidates.
Jeb Bush, Florida, 1999-2007
Education is Bush’s signature issue, and during his tenure Florida rose to the forefront in education reform.
A strong supporter of school vouchers, as well as Common Core and high stakes testing, Bush helped turn Florida into a hotbed of school choice and accountability. He was the driving force behind Florida’s first charter school, founded in 1996 before he became governor. His signature voucher program allowing state funds to be used to pay tuition at church-run schools was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2006 as a violation of the church and state separation doctrine in the state constitution.
Bush also pushed through tough school accountability measures, including rigorous testing, performance pay for teachers and a letter grading system for schools. While critics dispute much of his record, even critics concede that his education agenda helped Florida sharply narrow the achievement gap between white students and minorities.
After leaving office, he kept education as his main focus, founding the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a think tank that plays a major role nationally on the testing and accountability side of school reform.
Chris Christie, New Jersey, 2010-
Christie came into office with a tough-minded education reform agenda that included teacher and student accountability and support for tough standards, including Common Core and value-added tests for teacher performance.
He has overseen a steady expansion of charter schools and a controversial revamp of Newark's schools that was originally a joint effort with then-Mayor and now-Senator Corey Booker, a Democrat. The Newark revamp, which broke up neighborhood schools in favor of city-wide school choice, ran into stiff opposition from resentful residents. The state-appointed city school superintendent recently resigned.
Despite that setback, Christie has so far had better luck in Camden, where the state took over local school control in 2013. Working with local leaders this time, the state shut down some local high schools, fired staff to close budget deficits, opened new charter schools. Graduation rates last year rose to 62 percent, still low, but six points higher than the previous year.
After initially supporting Common Core, Christie backed away in May of 2015, actively opposing Common Core as a federal overreach. His administration is launching a plan to pull out and restore local standards.
John Kasich, Ohio, serving 2011-
Kasich has stood by his early support for Common Core standards, but he also supported Ohio’s withdrawal this summer from the controversial PARRC test designed to accompany those standards.
Kasich has spoken strongly against teacher unions and supports a bill that would strip public employee unions of collective bargaining rights. While running for governor, he spoke of the need to “break the back of organized labor in the schools.” He also supports performance pay for teachers.
During his inauguration speech in 2011, Kasich called for “more choice, more accountability, more dollars in the classroom instead of bureaucracy.” He backed that up by pushing through a massive expansion of a tuition voucher program aimed at poor families in failing schools. Charters have also done well under Kasich, with funding for charters up 27 percent.
Mike Huckabee, Arkansas, 1996-2007
Huckabee says he is a strong supporter of state and local control over education, but there is some reason to question this on the record. Huckabee was an early supporter of charter schools, signing a bill in 1999 launching them in Arkansas.
But he was a vocal defender of No Child Left Behind, which centralized federal control of education. Huckabee now says he opposes the Common Core standards, but as recently as 2013 he told supporters they should, "rebrand it, refocus it, but don’t retreat." He has
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