Greg Abbott Gets In Testy Common Core Debate With Bill Bennett: ‘If It’s Crazy, It’s Probably Not Common Core’

Common Core standards are one of the most controversial changes to the education system in years, with internet memes, biting columns, and chain e-mails being passed around daily that lambast the system as an over-complicated mess. Greg Abbott, as the governor of one of the nation’s biggest states, has made his negative view of the Common Core system clear. Sunday Greg appeared on Chris Wallace’s Fox News program to debate radio host Bill Bennett about the merits of Common Core.

“This is going to be easy, frankly. I hope all your viewers will go to Google and plug in ‘9 + 6 Common Core.’ And when you do that, if you just plug in ‘9 + 6 Common Core,’ you will find a video that shows the way that math is taught under Common Core.”

You can watch the video that Abbott is referencing in his Common Core debate with Bill below.

Bennett, however, counters that there has been “a lot of misinformation spread” about the Common Core standards, including that it involves student reading all of President Barack Obama’s speeches and the teaching of Islamic principles. Bill said Greg, and other opponents like him, are not using the true Common Core changes to argue against it.

“Download the standards themselves, the Common Core standards. That’s what they did in Idaho, that’s what they did in Utah. And they said to the citizens, ‘Do you have any objection to any of this?’ Not what someone said the standards were, not what Google reported, not what some citizens group decided what Common Core, but the actual standards themselves… They are public, and anybody can examine those standards. You tell me what’s wrong with saying kids should learn how to parse and diagram sentences, memorize, read the Declaration of Independence? That’s what I want to know.”

Furthermore, Bill argued that Abbott was not in a position to detract Common Core. Greg’s home state of Texas is ranked 39th in terms of the states with the best education systems in the United States. In contrast, all of the states that finished within the top 10 have implemented Common Core.