He's clearly playing to what he hopes will be his national base, throwing them some red meat.
What he doesn't look at, and what isn't discussed, is that the lack of a national plan for education actually allows some states to have an inordinate amount of control over what the rest of the nation learns, basically giving Texas more power than the rest of the states to decide what kids need to know. It's because textbook publishers, being a for-profit enterprise, have to kowtow to their largest customers, even if those customers are religious nutballs.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/arch...-on-us/?page=1
National education plans would not only make it easier for people to move their families from one state to another without screwing up their kids' educations, it would also ultimately be more fair to all states, because there would presumably be more than just Texas or California dictating what should be in a textbook.