WASHINGTON, D.C. – Democrats don’t want to talk about Common Core, the wildly unpopular national education standards pushed on schools through President Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative.

Internal emails between Democratic National Committee staffers recently released by hackers show that while Democrats support Common Core, a lot of the public – including a lot of Democrats – aren’t big fans and the party is avoiding that issue at all costs.

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When DNC communications staff attempted to paint Republicans as anti-teacher in a video produced this spring, deputy communications director Eric Walker advised against mentioning the standards, the Washington Examiner reports.

“Common Core is a political third rail that we should not be touching at all,” Walker wrote in an email to video producers. “Get rid of it.”

“Most people want local control of education so having Cruz and Trump saying it on a DNC video is counterproductive Would get rid of any references to that,” he continued. “We wanted Christie in there bc he’s a trump surrogate/ could be trump vp/ most anti-teacher guy out there. He’s yelled at pretty much everyone, there HAS to be a video of him yelling at teachers and looking like a bully.”

Democrats seem to be sticking to the avoidance strategy with Common Core, as the national standards are not mentioned by name at all in the party’s platform, though it’s clear Democrats want the federal government to play a strong role in policing the nation’s schools.

The absence of any discussion about Common Core from Democrats in undoubtedly because it’s been a disaster, according to liberal education “expert” and union darling Dianne Ravich.

According to Ravich’s recent New York Times editorial:

The people who wrote the Common Core standards sold them as a way to improve achievement and reduce the gaps between rich and poor, and black and white. But the promises haven’t come true. Even in states with strong common standards and tests, racial achievement gaps persist. Last year, average math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress declined for the first time since 1990; reading scores were flat or decreased compared with a decade earlier. …

The federal government, states and school districts have spent billions of dollars to phase in the standards, to prepare students to take the tests and to buy the technology needed to administer them online. There is nothing to show for it.

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And while Democrats have their heads in the sand on Common Core, Republicans explicitly stated opposition to the national standards in the Republican Platform 2016.

“We reject a one-size-fits-all approach to education and support a broad range of choices for parents and children at the state and local level. We likewise repeat our long-standing opposition to the imposition of national standards and assessments, encourage parents and educators who are implementing alternatives to Common Core, and congratulate the states which have successfully repealed it,” according to the platform.

The party’s nominee, billionaire Donald Trump, released a video in January calling Common Core “a disaster” that needs to be scrapped, EAGnews reports.

“So Common Core is a total disaster. We can’t let it continue. We are rated 28 in the world, the United States. Think of it – 28 in the world,” Trump said in the video, viewed more than 5.4 million times on Facebook. “And frankly, we spend far more per pupil than any other country in the world by far, it’s not even a close second.”

“So here we are. We spend more money and we’re rated 28. Third-world countries are ahead of us,” Trump said, staring directly into the camera.

“We’re going to end Common Core,” he continued. “We’re going to have education – an absolute priority.”

And Trump’s vision of education is focused on putting parents in control, rather than federal bureaucrats.

“Education has to be at a local level,” Trump said. “We cannot have the bureaucrats in Washington telling you how to manage your child’s education.”