

Bill Bennett (AP)

Bill Bennett, who was education secretary under President Ronald Reagan, just published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal: “The Conservative Case for Common Core,” with the subhead: Federal intrusion and misleading rumors do a disservice to an effort that started in the states.

The piece begins with Bennett saying he has been “following the national debate” over the Common Core state standards, and continues with a smack at the Obama administration for its involvement and then tries to explain why conservatives should support the Core.

Bennett may well have been following the national debate and felt compelled to reach out to fellow conservatives about the Core, but it turns out that he got paid to write the piece. Politico reported that Bennett conceded that DCI Group, a public relations and lobbying firm based in Washington, paid him to write the piece. “I’m compensated for most of the things that I do,” he was quoted as saying.

The Common Core has, as anybody paying attention knows, been taking a beating around the country by people of all political stripes, although the spotlight has been on conservatives who once supported it but have turned against it — such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) — on the grounds that the Obama administration had become too involved and that the “federal overreach” had ruined the initiative.

Supporters have been trying to find new ways to make their case to different constituencies. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded several million dollars this past summer to various groups to support implementation of the Common Core.

In his op-ed, Bennett argued that the Core is a conservative idea. He said in part:

Let’s begin with the ideas and principles behind the Common Core. These educational principles have been debated and refined over decades. First, we can all agree that there is a need for common standards of assessment in K-12 education. And we can all agree that there are common and shared truths in English, literature and math. Think of “We hold these truths to be self evident” as emblematic.

Actually, everybody doesn’t agree that states need common standards of assessment in K-12 education. Also, what are shared truths in English and literature?

He continues:

When I was chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the 1980s, I asked 250 people across the political spectrum what 10 books every student should be familiar with by the time they finish high school. Almost every person agreed on five vital sources: the Bible, Shakespeare, America’s founding documents, the great American novel “Huckleberry Finn ” and classical works of mythology and poetry, like the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Actually, the Common Core English Language Arts standards promote a great deal of nonfiction, and there is concern among many educators and parents that classics such as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” won’t be assigned anymore. The Core doesn’t require the reading of any of the books he mentioned.

And then he says, “That’s the fundamental idea behind a core curriculum: preserving and emphasizing what’s essential, in fields like literature and math, to a worthwhile education. It is also, by the way, a conservative idea.”

Actually, Common Core supporters insist the the Core is a set of standards and not a curriculum.

You can expect to see more op-eds in various publications supporting the Core in the near future.