Republicans Gain Ground in Education

By Jack Wolfsohn

Friday, July 22, 2022

 

A recently released poll conducted by the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country, indicated a trend that won’t please many of its members. Republicans are gaining ground in battleground states on an issue that traditionally has been dominated by Democrats: education.

 

The poll found that when voters were asked whether they have more confidence in Republicans or Democrats to handle education issues, 39 percent chose the GOP, 38 percent the Democrats. While this is a narrow lead, what matters are the gains that Republicans have made on this issue. It started with the counter-revolution against the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in schools, which helped propel Glenn Youngkin to an upset victory in Virginia last November. The transition to online education during the pandemic exposed many parents to what their children were learning in school, and many were unhappy with what they saw. Recently, the focus of Republican politicians and conservative activists has shifted from exposing CRT in schools to countering radical gender ideology being taught to children in some K–12 schools. Christopher Rufo, senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute, has started publishing a series of reports on radical gender ideology being taught to kids as young as five years old.

 

This is a culture war that the Right can win. Rufo tells National Review, “We have fundamentally shifted public opinion on schools. Parents saw what was happening with critical race theory and gender ideology — and went into revolt.” What began in Loudoun County, Va., has turned into a nationwide movement as droves of parents began attending school-board meetings to protest what their children were being taught in the classroom. This culminated in successful parental campaigns for school-board positions, which happened even in deep-blue states such as Connecticut.

 

The solution rests in turning away from public schools. Rufo tells NR, “At the state level, Republicans should copy Arizona and pass universal school choice, providing educational dollars directly to families, who can take them to any institution of their choice.” This will put pressure on public schools to reform. Rufo believes school choice will be “an immediate good for families, and over time, create competitive pressure on public schools that will help them improve, too.”

 

There are various reasons why conservatives increasingly have the upper hand on this issue. Lindsey Burke, the director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation and a member of Youngkin’s landing team on education, tells NR that “conservative policies are aligned with parents’ values.” Parents wanted schools open for in-person learning during the pandemic, Burke points out. Moreover, parents “know they are their child’s first and foremost educator. Conservative policies like curriculum transparency and education choice give parents the tools to reject radical curricular content in schools and vote with their feet when they’re unhappy.”

 

Remote learning helped expose parents to the radical ideologies such as CRT that are being injected into the material their children are taught as well as directly pushed on them. Burke explains, “Many [parents] did not want to stand by while their elementary-school children were being taught they were guilty of oppression because of immutable characteristics or that they should stereotype or judge others based on skin color.”

 

According to Burke, 2011 was considered the year of school choice because of the number of education programs built on choice that states adopted that year, including Arizona’s novel education-savings-account program. However, even greater progress on this front has been achieved this year. Arizona has become the most pro-school-choice state in the country. Arizona governor Doug Ducey signed a bill on July 7 that makes it easier than ever for parents to send their kids to the school they prefer, a choice that will affect the more than 1.1 million students in the state, though anti-school-choice organizations have vowed to challenge the law. Through Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, parents will have access to more than $6,500 per year to send their children to the school of their choice — public, private, charter, or micro (schools with 15 students or fewer) — and the money can also be put toward homeschooling and tutoring. Burke calls the Arizona program “truly tremendous progress,” noting that “education choice is a critical component of enabling families to leave schools that don’t meet their needs or reflect their values.” For conservatives, this would be the many schools dominated by a left-wing education establishment that seeks to indoctrinate students with its favored political ideology. For public-school parents who want their children to be taught traditional subjects in a straightforward way, “education choice holds an answer for them.”

 

School choice is the path forward. Burke believes that “every child, from Day One, should be funded with an education-savings account.” It is unjust to relegate students to district schools based on their zip code. Rather, Burke contends, “education spending should fund children directly.”

 

“That’s true accountability,” says Burke. “And it’s the future of K–12 education in America.”