George Pataki in Forbes Magazine 2016 Candidates

On Education: Common Core is a horrible idea

Pataki further said, "We have to scale back the Department of Education dramatically. It is too big, like the rest of the government, too big, too powerful and too intrusive. Education has always been a state-controlled issue. I am a believer that the best government is the government closest to the people. So leave education to the local schools, the district schools, the states. And let the Education Department get information on best practices that they can distribute, but not try to tell our schools and our parents how our children are educated in America. Period."