On February 11, 2016, President Obama nominated John B. King to succeed Arne Duncan as secretary of education. Immediately prior to assuming leadership of the Department of Education, King served as deputy secretary of education. Before that, he served as commissioner of education of the state of New York, overseeing the New York State Education Department, from 2011 to 2015. The liberal Huffington Post describes King as a “fierce supporter of Common Core.” As commissioner, he supervised the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in New York. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) said about King, “He forced on an unwilling school system an unpopular Common Core curriculum and standards, inflexible testing regimes and a flawed teacher evaluation system.”
The Senate confirmed the nomination on March 14, 2016 by a vote of 49 to 40 (Roll Call 36). We have assigned pluses to the nays because of King’s adamant support for Common Core and its universal one-size fits all approach to local education. Moreover, the Department of Education is unconstitutional.
