Rand Paul, the junior U.S. senator from Kentucky, is one of at least six Republicans hoping to be president. He’s officially up against Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina—and more likely candidates, like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, are waiting in the wings. He’s also the subject of the eighth installment of the Eduwatch 2016 series chronicling candidates’ stances on education issues.
Paul, who is both a standing U.S. senator and a practicing ophthalmologist, has been around national politics most of his life. His father Ron was an on-again, off-again congressman between 1976 and 2013, ran for president twice, and first held office when Rand was thirteen years old. So although Rand has only been in office for four years, he isn’t exactly a novice—nor is he treated like one. Here are his views on education:
1. Common Core: “I believe we must abolish Common Core.” May 2015.
2. School choice: “I propose that we allow school charters, school choice, vouchers, competition. Competition breeds excellence and encourages innovation. And boy, we really need innovation.” July 2014.
3. The U.S. Department of Education: “We spend about $100 billion on the Department of Education each year....That $100 billion gets rolled around in a big bureaucracy up there. They send rules down that don’t help education, they hinder innovation. I would cut them out of the loop. I don’t think you’d notice if the whole department were gone tomorrow.” April 2014.
4. Local control of education: “Under the Constitution's 10th amendment, education should fall under the jurisdiction of states and localities.” January 2015.
5. Online instruction: “There are probably ten thousand extraordinary teachers. Let's find those teachers, put them on the Internet, and have them teaching most of our kids.” April 2014.
6. Parents’ role in education: “The responsibility for education ultimately lies with the parents and education is one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children. I believe that parents should be empowered to take an active role in their children's education.” May 2015.
7. Educational inequality: “They say education is the great equalizer, but all schools aren't equal. Many of the schools in our large cities are functioning with low standards. Many of the schools have become dropout factories. Some schools lack discipline and are unsafe. I say the status quo is unacceptable.” July 2014.
8. Regulating homeschooling and private schools: “I also seek to prevent the Department of Education from regulating private and homeschooling options.” May 2015.
9. Education and social indoctrination: “Big government education, big government ideas, and all of this centralization have become far more interested in social indoctrination than teaching kids the three R's.” January 2015.
10. Tax-deductible student loans: “The president says, 'Oh, I just want to give you free college.' It sounds good at first, but think about it: How could it be free? Won't somebody still have to pay the professors, the electricity, the janitorial services, the building costs—somebody pays. I have a better idea. Let’s let college students deduct the entire cost of their educations over their working careers. Let’s make college tuition entirely deductible.” April 2015.
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That’s it for Rand Paul, and that’s it for the eight officially declared candidates. Next up are quotes from big names like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker—figures who are expected to run, but haven’t yet formally announced.
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Read what Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki have said about education.
