A recent campaign robocall from Mark Johnson should remove any remaining doubt that the state superintendent’s sudden anti-Common Core push is a disingenuous effort to earn votes.

The call, which you can hear in its entirety below, begins with the words

“I’m Mark Johnson. As your elected superintendent, I’m fighting to end Common Core. As your candidate for Lieutenant Governor, I ask you to please vote for Johnson, because I want your help to get back to common sense in government.”

Johnson does not mention the fact that North Carolina repealed Common Core in 2014, replacing the national standards with revised state standards in 2017.

After more than three years in the superintendent’s office, Johnson suddenly began speaking out against Common Core this month–the same month early voting begins in the March 3 primary for North Carolina Lieutenant Governor.

Last week Mark Johnson raised eyebrows by using personal cell phone numbers and email addresses of hundreds of thousands of North Carolina public school families and employees which he collected from school districts to send an anti-Common Core message clumsily disguised as a survey seeking input from North Carolinians.

This use of state resources for campaign purposes earned Johnson dozens of ethics complaints, filed with the State Ethics Commission by fed up educators and parents like myself.

Johnson’s spokesman responded with a personal attack, telling the Raleigh News & Observer, “This blogger should be considering his own ethics given that he continues to push harmful lies about DPI …This is another disingenuous attempt to discredit Superintendent Johnson’s efforts to listen to actual parents and teachers, instead of Elitist Insiders.”

The robocall makes it clear that Mark Johnson sudden Common Core hate has nothing to do with any efforts to listen to parents and teachers.

If you’d like to know how to file an ethics complaint in North Carolina, there’s a tutorial here:

How to file a North Carolina ethics complaint