It’s National School Choice Week, and with a White House and Congress openly in favor of educational choice, there’s a lot to celebrate. While the battle to provide greater educational options for families has predominately taken place at the local level, for the first time in years advocates are optimistic that real change will finally come from Washington.
America’s public schools are failing students. The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was the first conducted since all students returned to class full time since the pandemic, and the scores were predictably abysmal. Reading scores fell by two points for 4th graders, and this was a drop from the historically low scores of 2022. For 8th graders, the scores revealed that only one third of them can read at a basic level. These dismal results are despite Washington sending nearly $190 billion to school districts to make up for damage done by school closures.
But these scores are not a result of COVID-related school closures alone. The NAEP scores, as well as other nationwide assessment scores, have been concerning for years. The solution is not to continue spending money on a broken system.
A better idea is to give parents and their kids more education options. For decades, too many students have been forced to go to whatever school they are assigned to based on their zip code. But the push to change that has been gaining momentum in state legislatures and in D.C. over the past several years, culminating in an executive order issued by President Trump designed to give parents options.
The order notes that “when our public education system fails such a large segment of society, it hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities.” That’s why “more than a dozen States have enacted universal K-12 scholarship programs, allowing families — rather than the government — to choose the best educational setting for their children.” This executive order is designed to bolster those state efforts by directing the Department of Education to prioritize school choice when issuing discretionary grants.
It also directs the Department of Defense to determine how they can use funds to improve education options within the military. The Department of the Interior has a similar mandate to explore how to improve choice for families who typically attend Bureau of Indian Education schools.
The scope of this executive order highlights how important this administration views the ability for parents to choose the best educational option for their kids.
Not only are public schools failing to educate children in basic academic skills, many of them are indoctrinating them into radical gender ideology, using curriculum that teaches them to judge each other based on race or ethnicity, and teaching them to view America as an inherently racist and evil country. This reality prompted a second executive order related to K-12 education.
The order, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination is K-12 Education,” seeks to cut off federal funding for any schools “that directly or indirectly support or subsidize the instruction, advancement, or promotion of gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology.” It also directs the Attorney General to coordinate with state and local authorities to take action against teachers and school officials who are caught sexually exploiting minors, facilitating the social transition of a minor student, or prescribing medicines and treatments to a child without a parent’s knowledge or consent.
It also reinstates the 1776 Commission, which was originally created during the first Trump administration to “promote patriotic education” through such initiatives as the “Presidential 1776 Award,” given to students who demonstrate exemplary knowledge of America’s Founding era, and efforts to ensure patriotic education is offered at all of the Nation’s parks and historic landmarks.
While it is excellent to have a President who places such a high value on school choice and ensuring American schoolchildren are receiving an education in the right values, these executive orders can be repealed by a future President who does not share the same ideology. That’s why it is important for Congress to pass legislation that cannot be easily undone.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) are leading the charge in that effort with the Educational Choice for Children Act. The bill, endorsed by Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC), would support the ability for low-income students to escape the failing public school system. If passed, it would incentivize donations to scholarship funds by allowing donors to claim a tax credit. These funds are used to help poor families pay for tuition for private school or other non-public school alternatives. By encouraging people to donate to these funds, the associated nonprofits will have greater ability to help families who would otherwise have been unable to get out of their zip code assigned school.
America’s public education system has been failing students for decades, and turning it around is a monumental task. But this whole government approach – from ridding the schools of subversive curriculum, mandating agencies to find new opportunities for school choice, highlighting the need to help low-income students – is an excellent start.