The Chinese steal American intellectual property because they are inferior at innovation, a result of their homogenized educational system, Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina told the Iowa conservative Christian blog
Caffeinated Thoughts in January.
BuzzFeed News posted a video of Fiorina answering questions about the much-maligned Common Core educational standards back in January.
In the video, Fiorina, who like many of her GOP colleagues opposes the federally standardized Common Core, expounded on her position, one that has apparently evolved over the years.
Story continues below video.
Education Week earlier this month reported that, as California’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2010, Fiorina lauded the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program which helped bring Common Core standards into 46 states, mostly in 2010 and 2011.
Fiorina lost the race to Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer.
On her campaign website, Fiorina credited Race to the Top for its "internationally benchmarked" standards and assessments to prepare students for the next century, according to Education Week.
But in January Fiorina had a different view.
"The argument for Common Core is frequently 'oh, we have to compete with the Chinese.' I have been doing business in China for decades and I will tell you that, yeah, the Chinese can take a test, but what they can’t do is innovate," she said, adding that the Chinese are also "not terribly imaginative" and "not entrepreneurial."
Her position now is that mandating federal benchmarks for education is a terrible idea.
"One of the things we have to maintain about our school systems comes with local control is to teach entrepreneurship, innovation, risk-taking, imagination, these are things that are distinctly American and we can’t lose them," she said.
The facts are clear, according to Fiorina: "The bigger the Department of Education becomes, the worse our public education becomes. So there is no connection to spending more money in Washington and a better school system.
"In fact, there is every connection between giving parents choice and having real competition and having real accountability in the classroom."
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