Paid Common Core proponent Bill Bennett continues defense of controversial program
From Capitol City Project
Bill Bennett collects money pushing the controversial Common Core program to Republicans.
Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and engaged in a heated debate against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the merits of Common Core.
The 11-minute debate can be watched here in its entirety:
What wasn’t made aware to the viewers watching the exchange is that Bill Bennett, who served in the Reagan administration as Secretary of Education, is paid to promote and praise the controversial Common Core program to conservatives by a lobbying group in our nation’s capital.
Back in September of 2014, Bennett penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled, “The Conservative Case for Common Core,” in which he tried to brush off Common Core opponents as misled.
Problem was, Bennett was receiving money from the Washington, D.C.- based DCI Group for his help on the issue. The DCI Group, a public relations and lobbying group, paid him to write the piece which was ultimately published with hopes of using a conservative member from the Reagan administration to reach out and convince those on the right who are against the program that they’ve simply been misdirected.
“Common Core advocates are redoubling their efforts to find credible Republicans to embrace the Common Core,” wrote Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute in a National Review rebuttal to Bennett. “On Thursday they got former secretary of education Bill Bennett to restate his support for the Common Core in a Wall Street Journal editorial. You can just picture the Common Core’s (predominantly liberal) champions high-fiving in celebration. But they should restrain themselves, because the Bennett column illustrates why the Common Core’s “conservative problem” isn’t going away anytime soon.”
Later, Bennett claimed that he wrote the op-ed because Common Core has “taken a beating that’s been unwarranted” and confirmed he was paid to write the piece. “I’m compensated for most of the things that I do,” he said in defense of receiving money from the DCI Group.
