While on the campaign trail this month, former President Donald Trump repeatedly pledged to “shut down the federal Department of Education” and expand school choice, a concept that is extremely popular across party lines, according to a new poll. It is said that
The good news: If he wins the White House again, he’ll be able to do both.
The Federal Department of Education is an unconstitutional waste of time and money.
There is no doubt that its very existence violates the 10th Amendment. The word “education” does not appear anywhere in the Constitution.
The federal government has spent well over $1 trillion on K-12 education since the department’s inception, yet student outcomes have failed to improve.
The system was created in 1980, at the end of President Jimmy Carter’s single-term term, in response to the nation’s largest teachers’ union’s support for his unsuccessful re-election bid.
President Trump doesn’t want anything to do with it.
“I’m going to take control of the Department of Education and shut it down in Washington,” he said at a September rally in Pennsylvania.
“Let each state run its own education.”
He makes a good point.
The federal government could send the department’s money back to the states, allowing them to spend more money on education as needed.
That would allow for more local control and less wasteful spending on useless bureaucrats in Washington.
But if President Trump dismantles the federal education bureaucracy, will he be able to fulfill another promise: free school choice?
Yes, here’s how.
The Educational Choice for Children Act is a bill that would create a national school choice program that would not be administered or regulated by the federal Department of Education.
In a Fox News interview on Friday, President Trump said he would sign it.
As a federal tax credit scholarship initiative, ECCA allows taxpayers to keep more of their own funds when contributing to each state’s K-12 scholarship program.
This idea is popular. A poll released this week found that 69% of American voters “support a federal tax credit that allows parents to send their students to the schools of their choice, including private schools.” Square reports. This was 62% for Democrats and 77% for Republicans.
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And a bill to make that happen has already been passed by Congress.
The House Ways and Means Committee passed ECCA along party lines last month, with all Republicans voting for it and all Democrats voting against it.
This is the first time in American history that a national school choice initiative has been led by a Congressional committee.
This bill would create a federal tax incentive that private donors can provide to K-12 scholarship organizations.
Families can use scholarships for private school tuition, tutoring, special needs services, educational technology, curriculum materials, and more.
This idea is not unprecedented.
Twenty-one states already have school choice programs in the form of tax credit scholarships.
For example, Florida launched a tax credit scholarship program in 2001.
Currently, nearly half a million students have been awarded scholarships through the Sunshine State’s Private School Choice Program.
During the same period, Florida’s education system rose to the top of the national rankings despite spending 27% less per student than the national average.
ECCA will benefit families in red states that already have school choice by providing additional resources to make private education more affordable.
More importantly, it would give some form of school choice to families in blue states, the local politicians who benefit from teachers’ unions.
School choice is the rising tide that lifts all boats.
Nationally, 26 of 29 studies on the topic found that school choice competition improves public school performance and forces them to work harder in response to school choice competition.
The next step is for the bill to go to the full House, where it has strong Republican support.
In fact, 153 Republicans, or about 70% of the caucus, have already signed on as co-sponsors of ECCA.
No wonder. School choice has become a litmus test for Republicans, especially after conservative parents witnessed left-wing indoctrination in public schools during remote learning during the COVID-19 era.
Although the bill is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate, the party is an affiliate of the teachers union, and a majority of voters support the initiative.
More than 99% of Randi Weingarten’s campaign contributions from the American Federation of Teachers went to Democrats last election cycle, as they have for decades.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are aligned with labor unions: 2024 Democratic platform opposes school choice.
But with 31 Senate Republicans already signing on to ECCA and Republicans expected to take control of the chamber after the November election, national school choice could cross the finish line in 2025. — if Republicans also hold the House and Donald Trump wins.
Such momentum would create a desire to abolish the federal Department of Education as well and permanently return education to the states.
Cory DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Culture Project and author of The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools.
