Trump Announces Education Agenda, Endorsing School Choice

President Trump, in his bid for a second term in 2024, is joining the crusade for school choice that is sweeping state legislatures.Mr. Trump, announcing in a video tenets of his education agenda, called for “universal school choice.” He mostly focused on culture wars — the kinds of issues that have made Governor DeSantis a formidable challenger to the former president.In the statement last week, Mr. Trump announced his intention to incentivize states to pass a “Parental Bill of Rights,” which would include universal school choice and curriculum transparency measures.Mr. Trump says he will “implement massive funding preferences and favorable treatment” for locales that guarantee such measures — in addition to ending teacher tenure, cutting administrative personnel, and allowing parents to elect principals.“If any principal is not getting the job done, the parents should be able to vote to fire them and select someone who will,” Mr. Trump said. “This will be the ultimate form of local control.”Mr. Trump has not yet endorsed a specific policy program for states to enact universal school choice, but already several states have taken it upon themselves to pass universal school choice legislation in the form of education savings accounts.ESAs, as they are known in education policy circles, allow states to disburse funds to families to spend on education-related costs: school tuition, textbooks, online courses, and more.School choice advocates see them as more advantageous than traditional vouchers because they are more flexible and incentivize families to economize, as unspent funds roll over year to year. Students are usually eligible to receive the per-capita funding that public schools would spend.In the past week, both Utah and Iowa passed legislation that will guarantee all students in these states ESA funding and effectively universal school choice. Arizona enacted the first universal ESA last year.West Virginia has a similar program for students seeking to transfer out of traditional public schools. Texas, Idaho, Florida, and Oklahoma are looking at proposals for universal ESA programs this legislative term as well.Mr. Trump’s announcement is a sign that the GOP is staking out education reform as a signature issue, but is moving cautiously with respect for state autonomy. Two of Mr. Trump’s most formidable potential opponents, Governors DeSantis and Youngkin, have made education their signature issue.More than signaling support for school choice, the two governors have brought education to center-stage of the party platform by tackling the power of teachers unions — particularly during the Covid school shutdowns — and combating “woke” ideology in classrooms.Another potential Republican presidential hopeful, Secretary Pompeo, has dished out soundbites against teachers unions over the past few months, attacking the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, as “the most dangerous person in the world.”Conservatives have traditionally looked with disdain on the Department of Education and national K-12 standards. Yet increasingly they are relying on the department’s Office of Civil Rights for complaints about discrimination — for example, on the basis of race when critical race theory enters classrooms.Mr. Trump in his address promised to cut federal funding for schools teaching “Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”He also referred to leftist ideology as “an established new religion” and promised to investigate “potential violations” of the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses. Mr. Trump also discussed creating teacher certification for those “who embrace patriotic values.”“As the saying goes, personnel is policy, and at the end of the day, if we have pink-haired Communists teaching our kids, we have a major problem,” the 45th president said.Meanwhile, at Washington last week, Senator Cruz introduced two bills that would encourage school choice nationwide. One would allow 529 accounts to be spent on K-12 education, and the second would incentivize tax credit scholarships at the state level. Neither bill is considered likely to pass the current Congress.

Trump Announces Education Agenda, Endorsing School Choice

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