"It's about politics, it's not about education."
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says Gov. Bobby Jindal's recent opposition to the Common Core education standards is politically-driven.
Duncan made his comments Tuesday on "CBS This Morning," when questioned about the English and math benchmarks adopted by most states and Jindal's criticism of them.
The secretary noted Louisiana's GOP governor once was a supporter of Common Core. He said of Jindal's switched position: "It's about politics, it's not about education."
Republicans are divided on Common Core, with opposition from tea party organizations.
Jindal has said he intends to take executive action to remove the Common Core from Louisiana classrooms, despite legislative support for the standards.
Jindal spokeswoman Shannon Bates said Duncan's comments prove the Common Core is being pushed by the Obama administration as "a federal takeover" of education.