Kasich, Reportedly on Path to 2020 Bid, Says ‘We Need to Completely Redo Education’

Updated

John Kasich is likely to run for president again in 2020, according to a New York magazine profile of the Ohio governor.

A moderate in an increasingly right-leaning Republican Party, Kasich says the country needs to be “pro-environment” and “pro-immigrant.”

And, he told the magazine, “I think we need to completely redo education. Every piece of education now is behind the times and a hundred years old.”

Unlike President Donald Trump, whose education positions during the campaign were limited to opposition to the Common Core and a light-on-details school choice proposal, Kasich, particularly given his time as governor, had more edu-policy chops.

He backed the Common Core (though he pulled out of the PARCC testing consortium) and has supported charters and other choice measures. He’s also helped try to clean up the scandal-plagued Ohio charter school sector, particularly its online operators, and backed mayoral takeover of some failing districts.

Education might not be the best campaign issue for Kasich, though: During his time as governor, Ohio has dropped from No. 5 in 2010 to No. 22 in 2016 on Education Week’s annual national rankings, according to New York magazine. (Ohio advocates point to changes in Ed Week’s rankings and improvements in other states for Ohio’s large relative drop in the rankings, even as its final grade during that time changed just from a B- to a C.)

Kasich, the last of Trump’s 2016 primary competitors to drop out of the race, could launch a primary challenge or run as an independent in the general election, according to the article. He has not yet officially said he’s running, but he hasn’t been shy about speaking out against Trump, whom he never endorsed in the general election.

Kasich appeared at The 74’s New Hampshire Education Summit in 2015. He touted Ohio’s success with an early-intervention reading program, and said he favors local control of schools, higher teacher pay, and more vocational instruction and internships.

And Kasich, who was raised Catholic but is now Anglican, tied improving education to serving God’s will.

“You don’t have to think the way I do, but I believe the Lord watches what we do with our children. And the more we dedicate ourselves to having those children rise and to use their great brains to help heal this world and bring justice, the happier He is,” Kasich said.

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