Ohio Governor John Kasich became the 16th—and perhaps last—Republican to join the field for the 2016 presidential nomination with his announcement today in Columbus at his alma mater, Ohio State University. Kasich, who spent 18 years in Congress, didn’t mention education issues during his launch speech. As governor, he has expanded voucher programs and charter schools in the state and brought in Teach for America to work in the schools.
Kasich supports the Common Core curriculum standards, though he recently pulled Ohio out of the PARCC consortium that is used in many states to test children on the Common Core material. Here are some of his other views on education:
School choice:
I’m for choice in education because I think the more competition (there) is among adults to fight for the right to educate our kids, the better our kids do. Our love is for the kids. Our love is not for a structure or some kind of an organization. It’s for the kids.
Blueprint for a New Ohio, February 2015
Common Core:
Well, I mean these were governors that helped create Common Core. …the common core was written by state education superintendents and local principals. In my state of Ohio, we want higher standards for our children and those standards are set and the curriculum is set by local school board. Barak Obama doesn’t set it. The state of Ohio doesn’t set it. It is local school boards driving better education, higher standards, created by local school boards. I’ve asked the Republican governors that have complained about this to tell me where I’m wrong. And guess what, silence.
But you know, part of the problem is today politicians are running to try to get votes. You know what we try to do out here, we run out here trying to solve problems. And we have a problem with the education standards and our children’s ability to compete in the world. We’re not going to turn this over to Washington or even to Columbus, our state capital. It’s local schools with local school boards and high standards. I don’t know how
Ohio Governor John Kasich announces he is running for the 2016 Republican party’s nomination for president at Ohio State University, Tuesday, July 21, 2015, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
anybody can disagree with that unless you’re running for something.