Common Core Lives in Indiana

 

Hundreds wait to get inside to watch Governor Pence cast his vote on the new standards.

Just 29 days ago, March 24th, Indiana Governor Mike Pence was hailed as being a national hero when he signed legislation making him the first Governor to formally withdraw from the Common Core.  Around the country, the growing army of parents who have fought Common Core for over two years cheered.  National groups, such as the Heritage Foundation lauded him for this feat.  Others sited it as a real feather in his cap for a 2016 presidential run.  Jeb Bush’s Common Core “problem” wouldn’t be Pence’s.  Jonathan Allen wrote in Bloomberg:

Pence has won praise from small-government conservatives for taking action in Indiana to back away from Common Core education standards supported by another potential Republican candidate, Florida’s Bush. The Washington-based Heritage Foundation, in a Facebook posting, applauded him for rejecting Common Core.

His allies say Pence has developed bonds with the major constituencies within the Republican Party — the small-government crowd, anti-abortion rights groups, and defense hawks — without alienating business-oriented voters. His lifetime rating from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest corporate trade group, was 89 percent in 2012, according to Montana-based Project Vote Smart.

Yesterday, however, this cinderella story sadly and abruptly came to an end .  It was on Easter Monday, of all days, that Governor Pence chose to resurrect the Common Core in Indiana.  Although rumors, including from Governor Herbert of Utah, had swirled for some time that Governor Pence intended to do no more than rebrand Common Core, Hoosiers were still shocked.  They had believed in Governor Pence.  They had believed in the promises he made – “uncommonly high standards,”  that would be “written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.”  After all, they had heard him speak those words at least a hundred times.  To some, he had given personal reassurances, with words such as “Common Core is DEAD in Indiana.”

Although last minute cries rang out from typical Pence allies, such as the Heritage Foundation and Michelle Malkin, urging Governor Pence to reverse course on re-branding Common Core, he did not.  Instead, Governor Pence ignored not only their advice, but the advice and criticism of the very national evaluators whom he had claimed to hold in such high regard only a few weeks before. Worst of all, Governor Pence chose to ignore the pleas of the nearly three hundred parents, children, and citizens who descended upon the statehouse yesterday, asking him to fulfill his promise.  As they stood watching, he cast his vote, which will affect their children’s futures.  Many said, the only word to describe their feelings at that moment was “betrayed.”  Governor Pence now shares something in common not only with Jeb Bush, but with Jeb’s father, George.  Whether he realizes it or not, his actions yesterday will certainly go down as his “Read My Lips” legacy.

See pictures of the rally from the Indianapolis Star photo gallery