Debating Trump, DeSantis, and GOP’s education views in 2024.
The First Republican Presidential Debate: Education Takes Center Stage
The countdown to the first Republican presidential debate on Aug. 23 is on, and candidates are gearing up to challenge former President Donald Trump and stand out from the crowd. In this series, Up For Debate, the Washington Examiner will delve into a key issue or policy every day leading up to the debate. Today, we focus on education.
Once considered an afterthought for Republicans, education has now become a pivotal issue in the 2024 presidential election. The parental rights movement, sparked by the 2020 school closures, has thrust education to the forefront of Republican politics.
Unlike other contentious issues such as the Ukraine war and abortion, the Republican primary field largely agrees on education policies. The ultimate goal is universal school choice, enabling students to use taxpayer funds for nonpublic education. Additionally, candidates are emphasizing their commitment to defending parental rights.
Up For Debate: Where Trump, DeSantis, and the Rest of the Republican 2024 Field Stand on Key Issues
“Conservatives are generally loath to make education policy from a federal level because they correctly believe that it is a state and local issue,” Prior said. “What we’re talking about now is not setting education policy, per se, but it’s protecting the constitutional rights of parents, students, and teachers.”
Ian Prior, the executive director of the political action committee Fight for Schools and author of Parents of the World Unite!: How to Save Our Schools from the Left’s Radical Agenda, emphasizes that parental rights have become a crucial concern for conservatives. He asserts that any Republican presidential candidate must pass the political litmus test of defending these rights.
Terry Schilling, the president of American Principles Project, echoes this sentiment, highlighting the significant shift in the political landscape surrounding education. Republicans now face the reality that they must wield federal government power to address what is traditionally seen as a local issue.
“It’s just abundantly clear that education is off the rails and needs to be reined in,” Schilling told the Washington Examiner. ”The first litmus test is whether or not the candidate thinks that you can take actions from the federal level to rein in the education system. If they don’t think that, then they’re disqualified, and they will be unable to fix the education system.”
Schilling emphasizes that candidates must be willing to defund programs that sexualize and radicalize children, making it a winning platform that resonates with voters.
While the Republican field is united in advocating for school choice, there is disagreement regarding the use of federal government to implement a conservative education agenda.
Donald Trump
Leading the Republican primary field by a wide margin, former President Donald Trump has outlined one of the most comprehensive education policy platforms among the candidates.
In a series of policy videos, Trump pledges to “save education and give power back to parents.” He also takes aim at higher education institutions that he believes have been taken over by “the radical left and Marxist maniacs.”
Trump plans to direct the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to launch civil rights investigations against school districts engaged in racial discrimination. He also vows to “remove the radicals who have infiltrated the federal Department of Education.”
In addition to supporting universal school choice and a parents bill of rights, Trump proposes unique policies such as the direct election of school principals by parents and the establishment of a new teacher credentialing agency that prioritizes patriotic values and focuses on education rather than indoctrination.
Ron DeSantis
Education has been a significant focus of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ tenure, and he has implemented an expansive conservative education policy agenda in the Sunshine State. Now, he sets his sights on similar efforts from the White House.
DeSantis is among the candidates who pledge to eliminate the Department of Education. In a recent interview, he stated that if Congress does not allow him to do so, he will use the agency to push back against woke ideology.
“So for example, with the Department of Education, we reverse all the transgender sports stuff,” DeSantis said. “We reverse policies trying to inject the curriculum into our schools. That will all be gone. We will make sure we have an accreditation system for higher ed, which is now trying to foment more things like DEI and CRT. So we’ll be prepared to do both. Either way, it will be a win for conservatives.”
DeSantis aims to restore traditional values in education and ensure that schools prioritize academic excellence over divisive ideologies.
(The text continues with information about other candidates, including Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, but for the purpose of this exercise, only the visible portion of the text has been edited.)
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