As President Biden’s presidential campaign faces a death spiral after his embarrassing debate performance — and as the likelihood of a November victory for former President Donald Trump grows — the prospects for national school choice are becoming brighter.
Trump is now tied with Biden on the question of who Americans trust on education policy, according to a June 30 poll from the highly regarded AtlasIntel.
That’s a seismic shift away from the Democrats, who have held a decades-long double-digit advantage on the issue.
The teachers’ unions overplayed their hand by fighting to keep schools closed during the COVID era and awakened a sleeping giant: parents.
Now, red states are unleashing education freedom through education savings accounts, vouchers and other school choice initiatives— but blue states have a long way to go.
National politicians can make a difference here.
Trump reiterated his support for education freedom — part of his platform in 2020 — with a Truth Social post in May.
“School Choice is the CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE of our time, and parents must have a voice in their child’s education!” he wrote.
“When I am your President again, I will protect Parental Rights, support Teachers, and expand Educational Freedom for all American Families!”
Last month, he promised to “support universal school choice” during a June rally in Philadelphia
He can help make that happen by prioritizing the Educational Choice for Children Act, a bill now making its way through Congress.
The bill would supercharge the school-choice momentum already happening in red states, while expanding education freedom to families in blue states, by creating a federal tax-credit scholarship initiative.
The program would allow people and corporations from any state to donate money to scholarship-granting organizations in exchange for a federal tax benefit.
Families could then go to those organizations to apply for K-12 education scholarships.
The proposal is popular: One recent poll found 66% of Americans support a federal tax-credit scholarship initiative, with near-supermajority support across party lines — 71% support among Republicans and 64% support among Democrats.
The concept follows one already in place across the country.
Twenty states have established tax-credit scholarship programs for K-12 education, including Florida, which enacted one over two decades ago.
More than 450,000 Florida students gained scholarships through the program this school year, according to Step Up For Students, a local school-choice nonprofit.
The program even brings benefits to the state’s traditional public schools, researchers have found — 10 out of the 11 studies on the topic concluded that public schools in Florida improved because of school-choice competition.
The federal tax-credit scholarship bill is already gaining momentum in Congress, with 151 co-sponsors in the House and 31 in the Senate.
As president, Trump could rally more Republicans in both chambers to sign on and get the bill to his desk.
Trump has signaled other important education moves as well, including the dismantlement of the meddlesome federal Department of Education — although congressional action on that proposal is not likely to make it across the finish line anytime soon.
The Educational Choice for Children Act, on the other hand, has victory within sight, and a second-term President Trump could quickly make it a reality.
Trump would be wise to continue to lean into parental rights as a political winner — after all, it worked wonders for Gov. Glenn Youngkin in Virginia in 2021.
Plus, Biden is a hypocrite on the issue: He went to private school and sent his children to private school, yet he fights against school choice for others.
Joe Biden and other privileged families already have school choice.
Soon, Trump can help expand education freedom for all Americans.
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, is the author of The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools (Center Street, 2024).