It might not qualify as a schoolyard brawl, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal traded verbal blows Monday over the Southern Republican’s decision to withdraw his state from Common Core.
In a drop-in appearance at the White House press briefing, Duncan told reporters Jindal was “a little bit isolated” in his call to opt out from the education standards.
{mosads}”The state board, the business community, teachers, are all moving forward,” Duncan said. “Teachers need the support of their statehouses to raise the bar. And again, having high standards, telling children the truth about where they are in terms of being truly college- and career-ready, we think that’s absolutely the right thing to do for the nation.”
Some 45 states have signed on to the Common Core standards, which are intended to standardize what children are expected to know by the end of each grade across the country. But Jindal, along with leaders in Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina, have attempted to opt out of the standards amid pressure from teachers’ unions and the Tea Party.
Jindal quickly took to Twitter to shoot back at the secretary of Education.
“[The] entire Obama admin is isolated from the American people on most every issue,” Jindal quipped. “This from the guys who tried to discriminate against minority kids in Louisiana.”
Jindal had sparred with the Obama administration last year after the Department of Justice charged in a lawsuit that the state’s school voucher program violated desegregation orders.
Jindal hasn’t been the only one to lob criticism at Duncan in recent days.
Last week, the National Education Association voted to call for his resignation, underscoring tensions between the administration and the nation’s largest teachers’ union.
Duncan said Monday he tried to stay out of “local union politics.”
“We agree on many issues. We disagree occasionally,” he added, saying the department would “continue to work very closely” with teachers unions.