The scene of Jindal railing against Common Corethe education standards embraced by more than 40 statesstands in stark contrast to his enthusiastic approval of the program when it was first introduced. Jindal proclaimed to business leaders in 2012 that Common Core “will raise expectations for every child.”
In a short time, Jindal has gone from serving as a steward of the Common Core standards to one of the nation’s chief critics. But what’s more remarkable is that conservatives — known for seeking ideological purity in their politicians — aren’t blasting Jindal as a flip-flopper as he considers a 2016 presidential run. Instead, they see him as uniquely positioned to be a leading advocate for their cause with the governor’s office to back up.
Indeed, many on the right have accepted Jindal’s repentance and are propping him up as an unlikely model for the anti-Common Core movement.
“Of the governors, he’s been the most active in speaking out on the issue,” Emmett McGroarty, APP’s education policy director, told CNN. “Quite frankly, he is the governor who has done the most to remove his state from Common Core.”
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Arthurs, who sat next to the governor at the APP event last week, said that she believes Jindal’s conversion was “genuine” and doesn’t blame Jindal for his initial opposition.
Instead, activists claim that Republican governors were duped by a massive public relations campaign and pressure from the National Governors’ Association urging them to sign onto Common Core to secure funding for their cash-strapped states.
“I don’t really blame the governors,” Arthurs said. “They heard an informercial… and they were all picking up the phone and ordering the product before it really ended. … They didn’t stop to ask the question: has this been tested?”
