OPINION:
The Department of Education will board school buses and put on a road show next week touting the “Biden-Harris administration’s historic investments in public education” in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and two other states. It is surely a coincidence that these are the most important political battlegrounds leading into November.
Spending federal taxpayer funds on thinly veiled campaign events is prohibited by law, but that’s not what this is about — apparently.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona explained the purpose in his announcement last week: “This year’s Back to School Bus Tour will remind the American people why the Biden-Harris Administration has unapologetically fought for public education, the foundation of opportunity in this country, and the contrast between our efforts and those who wish to destroy public education.”
The destroyers of public education aren’t identified, but former President Donald Trump does have a clear policy platform on education. The GOP candidate wants states to reclaim their fundamental responsibility over education and ensure every child — poor and rich alike — has access to the best education through a universal school choice program.
The teachers unions view such opinions as direct attacks on public education, so National Education Association President Becky Pringle will join Mr. Cardona in Michigan. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten will board the school bus in Pennsylvania.
Their opposition to giving parents control over their children’s education goes against the national trend. Twenty-nine states offer some form of educational alternative, and 12 of them have gone the distance with universal school choice. Scholarships and tax credits introduce a little competition into a system that had previously been dominated by the teachers unions.
Parents across all demographics are enthusiastic about having options. According to a Morning Consult/EdChoice poll released earlier this month, 78% of parents with children in K-12 schools support vouchers once they were made aware of how the programs work. Support for homeschooling came in at 69%.
Vice President Kamala Harris is no fan of choice. Her solution to our ailing public schools is to identify the worst performers so they can receive even more federal funding, as if more money were the solution to the problem.
But money wasn’t enough to get the administration’s clean energy school bus initiative off the ground. As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, federal agencies have begun implementing a $5 billion initiative to buy electric school buses to replace the nation’s diesel-powered fleet. As of last month, they had only 60 battery-powered buses to show for the effort.
Ms. Harris touted the first $1 billion expenditure at an event last year. “Who doesn’t love a yellow school bus? … This bus symbolizes so much about our collective investment in our future, because it is about our investment in our children, in their health and in their education. Our electric school bus program really does represent an intersection of all those point,” she said.
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Cardona’s tour will be on board an Earth-destroying diesel school bus or one of the rare, plug-in buses that Ms. Harris proclaimed to be the future. The lesson ought to be that Washington shouldn’t dictate school bus designs, because states are perfectly capable of making such decisions on their own.
So can voters and parents. They don’t need a bus tour to tell them who knows what’s best for their children.
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