OPINION:
The following analysis is part of The Washington Times’ Voter Guide, which outlines the candidates’ positions on the most important policy topics.
About half of Americans believe that public education is headed in the wrong direction. That’s according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
The latest figures show that just 26% of eighth graders met the minimum standard for math proficiency, and less than one-third of fourth graders were proficient in reading. Some 30% of students were also chronically absent, which is nearly double the pre-pandemic rate, the Annie E. Casey Foundation reported.
Many parents and state legislatures scrambled to find educational alternatives as the COVID-19 pandemic closed public schools for over a year in some areas. EdChoice says more than 1 million students are enrolled in a private school choice program, twice as many as four years ago.
Former President Donald Trump calls school choice “the civil rights issue of our time” and says federal education dollars should “follow the student.” On the campaign trail in Milwaukee, Mr. Trump vowed to cut the Department of Education and “send it back to the states.”
“Democrats want to keep minority students in government-run schools,” Mr. Trump said. “No parent should be forced to send their children to a failing, government-run school.”
The GOP candidate is promoting universal school choice so that parents “can send their children to the public, private, or religious school that best suits their needs, their goals, and their values,” his campaign website states.
He offers 10 principles to create “great schools” by restoring parental rights and firing underperforming teachers and school administrators. He would also eliminate the teaching of critical race theory, transgender ideology and left-wing indoctrination in public schools.
Mr. Trump has called on Congress to pass the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act, which has languished in the Senate under Democratic control. He would also establish tax credits for contributions to nonprofit scholarship funds that give students opportunities for a better education.
He wants to open Education Savings Accounts to homeschooling parents who could expense up to $10,000 a year per child tax-free.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, stands with the teachers unions and against school choice.
The 2025 Democratic platform opposes “the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education.”
As California’s junior senator, Ms. Harris supported Los Angeles teachers in their 2019 strike that demanded limited access to charter schools. Before that, she opposed an amendment supported by Mr. Trump and then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that encouraged school choice for low-income families.
Meanwhile, Ms. Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, opposed a 2021 proposal from state Senate Republicans to make ESAs available to most families. Mr. Walz complained that the legislation would “defund public education.”
On the campaign trail, Ms. Harris says the Education Department needs more money, calling on Congress to triple Title I funding and to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The programs spend about $34 billion on students from low-income families and those with disabilities, respectively.
In 2021, Ms. Harris backed the American Rescue Plan’s record $190 billion infusion into the public education system to help stem learning losses and address the mental health impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
For every $1,000 in federal aid spent, school districts saw only a minor improvement in math and reading scores, according to two studies from researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth and another from the University of Washington.
Based on test scores alone, this federal spending “doesn’t pass the cost-benefit test,” Tulane University economist Douglas N. Harris told The New York Times in June. Just 20% of the federal cash infusion had to be spent on academic recovery. The rest of the windfall paid for building renovations and the hiring of counselors and social workers.
Not surprisingly, the nation’s two largest teachers unions — the same ones demanding extended school closings to keep children out of classrooms during the pandemic — have endorsed Ms. Harris’ presidential run.
Rather than directly addressing school choice now, Ms. Harris has chosen to promote her plans for universal preschool and expand on President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness attempts.
Perhaps she realizes her opposition to school choice is unpopular with voters. A June poll by RealClear Opinion Research found that White, Black, Hispanic and Asian voters favor school choice by margins of 69% to 76%.
School choice is on the ballot in Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska, giving voters in those states a chance of joining the 19 others that already have it.
The rest of the country will also decide whether they want to take the school choice movement national with Mr. Trump or elect a president who will do everything in her power to shut it down.
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