GOP now leads Democrats on the issue of education

OPINION:

Since time began, the Democrats have been the party the voters expected to do a better job on issues related to education. The GOP may push for policies that are better for parents and children and learning, but none of that has helped them overcome the perception out there in the electorate that the other party is the one that stands for educational excellence.

Up until now, it’s mostly been a matter of spending. Democrats are always willing to spend more money on education — whether it leads to improvements or not — than most Republicans. In fact, with the help of allied messengers in the media and union propaganda, they long ago seized control of the discussion to the point they can define the terms.

Then came COVID-19. As part of the lockdowns, schools were closed, often at the insistence of the same teachers unions that keep Democratic politicians in their hip pocket like so much spare change. This didn’t go over well with parents and, when the effort to enforce closures spread to private schools as it did in places like California and the D.C. area, it enraged even the parents who thought that their children went to schools of quality, so they didn’t have to worry about the issue.

As a result, the tables appear to have turned. A new Morning Consult poll shows that for the first time in memory, the Republicans lead the Democrats in key battleground states when voters are asked, “Which party do you trust to do a better job on education?”

The swing is significant. In 2008, as the GOP president who promised “no child left behind” was leaving office, the Democrats enjoyed a 29-point lead over the Republicans on the education question. By 2017, during former President Donald Trump’s first year in office, that lead had slipped to 16 points. By 2021 it was down to 10. Now, after more than a year of shutdowns and zoom classes and mask mandates and teachers and school administrators dictating policy to parents, the GOP — which generally opposed mask mandates and shutdowns and wanted to follow the science regarding the likelihood that huge numbers of children would contract lethal COVID-19 just by going to school — is considered by all voters to be the party that would do a better job on education by 4 points.

Considering the GOP has never led on the issue before, that is a huge swing. Among parents, the lead is nine points. Among what the pollster called “voters of color,” the lead is 10. If ever there was an opportunity to build bridges with voters in demographics who typically reject Republican candidates by 9 to 1, this is it.

Now is the time for the GOP to go all in. Republicans have more governors and control of more state legislative chambers than at any time since there have been 50 states. There are education improvement proposals out there that have already proven they work. This includes vouchers, scholarships, the expansion of charter schools and altering the process through which schools are funded by having the money follow the student rather than being earmarked to a particular school.

Parents are asking to be empowered so they can make sure the lockdowns, which may have cost children years of learning that will be hard to get back and exposed them to unforeseen health risks because of the traditional mixing that couldn’t occur because children were kept apart, never happen again. That’s a revolution, and the GOP should prepare to spend political capital making it happen.