College-level speaking not required at the presidential debates 11:22 AM ET Thu, 10 March 2016

In a presidential season rife with confrontation, verbal barbs and endowment innuendo, one thing has stayed the same — nobody is speaking above a high school level. And one front-runner is solidly in elementary school territory.



The presidential candidates — both Republican and Democrat — have mostly been speaking at a middle school grade level, according to an CNBC analysis using debate transcripts through March 4.

On the GOP side, Ted Cruz leads the way for most likely to use big and complicated words. It's not surprising, given that Cruz was his high school's valedictorian, has degrees from Princeton and Harvard and was talented enough to represent the state of Texas in oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

What's surprising then? For all that experience and talent, his speaking level averaged around ninth grade.