Republicans, from Govs. Sarah Sanders (R-AR), Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), and Bill Lee (R-TN), in addition to Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and his wife Erika, who is chair of America First Policy Institute’s Center for Education Opportunity, were at the White House on Wednesday for a National School Choice Week roundtable to underscore the importance of education freedom and parental rights.
Sanders, who used to be one of Trump’s press secretaries during his first administration and chaired the Roosevelt Room roundtable, praised the president’s education executive orders and contended “no child should ever be trapped in a failing school simply because of their zip code.”
“By giving parents a choice about where their kids go to school, they will finally have all the tools and resources they need to pave their own path,” Sanders told Fox News. “It doesn’t matter where you start. You get to decide where you will finish. We have a president now who understands that, is going to fight for it, and make sure everybody has the opportunity to experience it.”
In a statement, Lee, whose state legislature this week passed a universal school choice law, the Education Freedom Act, told the Washington Examiner that Tennessee is looking forward to continuing to work with Trump “to return education to the states and deliver better outcomes for children.”
“President Trump believes that parents know best when it comes to their child’s education, and every parent should be empowered with education freedom,” Lee wrote.
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, was at the roundtable and described it as being gratifying that Trump preferred satisfying “a kid’s needs” and not an “adult’s wants,” referring to teachers unions.
“President Trump wanted feedback from the governors, from people on the ground like me, about what it is that American parents want and need,” Justice told the Washington Examiner. “It is really about making those executive orders come to life.”
She added, “It’s not going to be easy to disentangle woke from our schools.”
Trump’s campaign and then transition team promised “shock and awe” executive action from Day One of his second administration, and the president delivered. The executive orders he has signed so far since his inauguration include two called Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling and Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families after pledging to reform the Department of Education.
“My administration will enforce the law to ensure that recipients of federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights,” the first indoctrination order stated, including Title IX, a civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination.
To that end, the Education Department sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to K-12 schools and higher education institutions on Friday advising educators and administrators that the department’s Office for Civil Rights will enforce Trump’s 2020 Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex.
“The Biden administration’s failed attempt to rewrite Title IX was an unlawful abuse of regulatory power and an egregious slight to women and girls,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor wrote. “Under the Trump administration, the Education Department will champion equal opportunity for all Americans, including women and girls, by protecting their right to safe and separate facilities and activities in schools, colleges, and universities.”
Trump’s first order also reestablished the 1776 Commission, or 1776 Project countering the New York Times’s 1619 Project, to promote “patriotic education.”
Trump’s second education freedom order directed the Education Department to issue guidance on how states can spend federal funding on K-12 scholarship programs and discretionary grant funding on school choice. The same order also directed the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance on how states can use block grant funds for children and families on educational alternatives, including private and faith-based options.
During her second briefing on Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized the importance of education to Trump and his conservative base, citing recent National Assessment of Educational Progress results, known as the nation’s report card, which found 70% of eighth graders and 40% of fourth graders were not proficient in reading.
“The president believes American education should focus on cultivating patriotic citizens who are ready for the workforce, and this action will help get schools back on track and defend fundamental parental rights and education,” Leavitt told reporters Friday.
Amid criticism that Trump is putting social policies over economic ones, Justice, of Moms for Liberty, argued that “the well-being of American families is a bread and butter issue.”
“Parents have been very concerned about their children and what’s happening in the schools,” she said. “The fact that children can’t read is going to hurt our economy. There’s a huge cost to illiteracy in this country.”
Education was a top policy during Trump’s first administration, the end of which coincided with the pandemic and the start of greater momentum behind the parental rights movement. Trump spent almost $1.5 billion on more than 7,500 public charter schools and 3 million students. During his first term, parents similarly had the opportunity to withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free from 529 education savings plans every year for public, private, or religious K-12 schooling costs.
Trump’s executive orders appeal to parents to whom “indoctrination” and school choice are important, but beyond his conservative base, the polling regarding school choice and vouchers is “all over the place,” according to Claremont McKenna College politics professor John Pitney.
“Here is one under-appreciated source of opposition: affluent parents whose children attend very good private schools,” Pitney told the Washington Examiner. “Whether they admit it or not, they think vouchers will open their school doors to the riffraff.”
In response, Democratic governors and attorneys general, including Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, are considering how best to react, particularly related to Trump’s indoctrination order.
“The executive order, under threats of funding termination and criminal prosecution, requires schools to teach a version of history that denies the truth about our national story,” Brown wrote. “We have not always lived up to our ideals, and to overcome inequality and injustice, we must face our true history.”
The lawyer went on, “Nothing could be more un-American than dictating to schools that they must whitewash history.”
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But with activists, including Justice, now advocating Congress to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act, introduced this week by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Tim Scott (R-SC), she is unconcerned about Democratic scrutiny.
“If crazy Democrat governors aren’t going to support school choice in their states, the president is going to find ways to empower parents to make that decision,” she said.
