OPINION:
Saving America starts with saving our education system and protecting the next generation of students from the radical left-wing indoctrination infesting our schools. The best man for this job is Donald J. Trump, and that is why I am proud to endorse him for President of the United States in 2024.
President Trump’s record during his first term on education is unparalleled in modern history. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, President Trump’s first major legislative win, contained provisions for expanded school choice, allowing parents to use up to $10,000 from their 529 education savings account to cover K-12 tuition costs for private, public, or religious schools. President Trump has often referred to school choice as the “civil rights issue of our time” and understands that empowering families to choose what’s best for their children will help more students succeed.
Building on President Trump’s leadership, Oklahoma passed a universal school choice bill earlier this year that frees parents from geographic and financial constraints that have for too long trapped students in schools that don’t fit their needs.
President Trump also fought to restore state and local control over education to end the meddling of D.C. bureaucrats at the Department of Education. At the same time, he pushed through new protections ensuring that schools respect students’ First Amendment rights to pray and express their faith.
Perhaps most importantly, President Trump signed the first-ever ban on Critical Race Theory in the federal government and called out the spread of CRT and other far-left ideologies in the classroom. He recognized that our country’s crisis of patriotism has its roots in our schools and established the 1776 Commission to study and address this problem. The commission’s final report was the much-needed counter-punch to the pernicious lies being spread in our schools through anti-American curricula like the 1619 Project.
President Trump understands that teaching our young people the truth about American history – the good and the bad – is a vital part of sustaining our republic. To this end, he spoke at the first White House Conference on American History and also began plans for a National Garden of American Heroes to help educate students about our history and celebrate the people who helped make our country the greatest on Earth.
Unfortunately, President Biden has reversed much of this progress, and the decline of American education has continued under his watch. Soon after taking office, Biden canceled the National Garden of America Heroes, disbanded the 1776 Commission, and reversed President Trump’s CRT ban.
Biden also enacted a slate of radical policies forcing schools to embrace a far-left social agenda. Last year, Biden threatened to withhold lunch money from schools that refused to adopt the administration’s policies on students who identify as transgender. Biden’s Department of Education has also cited the widely-discredited 1619 Project as an “inspiration” and continued to stoke division among students by spreading the lie that America is “systemically racist.”
Predictably, putting politics ahead of education has caused U.S. reading and math scores to reach their lowest points in decades. History and civics scores, a key indicator of the future health of our republic, are also down. Students are still trying to catch up from the devastating impact of COVID-19 lockdowns. Countless students are stuck in underperforming public schools.
President Trump has the most specific and comprehensive plan of any candidate to get our schools back on track and rid our classrooms of left-wing propaganda.
President Trump pledged on day one to cut all federal funding for any school that promotes CRT, radical gender theory, or any other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content. To keep the left-wing garbage out of classrooms, the second Trump term will also start with a purge of the federal education bureaucracy to rid it of the partisans who have corrupted entire generations of students, with the goal of moving all education back to the States and closing down the U.S. Department of Education.
President Trump has also proposed four specific steps to empower parents and hold schools accountable when they fail to deliver on their responsibilities to taxpayers.
First, President Trump will abolish teacher tenure so that we can get rid of the bad teachers and reward the good ones. Pay and advancement should be based on performance, not simply how long someone has been in a role.
Second, President Trump will dramatically reduce the number of unnecessary administrative roles at schools. The vast majority of our education resources should be focused on students, not creating bloated DEI bureaucracies.
Third, President Trump will push Congress to adopt a parental bill of rights that codifies requirements for complete curriculum transparency and provides for universal school choice.
Fourth, President Trump will work to provide parents with greater power to hold schools accountable for performance, including giving parents a vote in the hiring and firing of school principals. Just like for our political leaders, President Trump wants school leaders to be more directly accountable to the parents whose children they are entrusted with educating.
For families who choose to homeschool their students, President Trump has proposed measures to ensure they still have access to programs like athletics, clubs, and after-school activities. In addition, homeschool families will have access to 529 savings plans just like students who attend public schools.
Instead of being force-fed left-wing talking points and anti-American propaganda, our students will get back to basics – math, reading, writing, and the skills that will help them succeed in the world once they graduate. As President Trump often says, “we owe our children great schools that lead to great jobs and leads to an even greater country than we’re living in right now.”
Under President Trump’s leadership, America’s schoolchildren will learn the truth about our country’s great history and its remarkable heroes, which will start to reverse the catastrophic collapse in patriotism. As President Trump said during his famous Mount Rushmore speech to celebrate Independence Day, “the story of America unites us, inspires us, includes us all, and makes everyone free.
Moreover, school safety will be a top priority under President Trump. He has pledged to finally end the insane liberal policies that have destroyed school discipline and put our students at risk. He has also outlined plans to allow highly trained teachers to concealed carry in school and invest in more school resource officers. Our government buildings and members of Congress all get armed protection – our kids should, too.
I’ve devoted my career to helping students and families succeed through the education system. I know how high the stakes are and the challenges we face in the years ahead. President Trump is the right man for the job, and I am confident that he will deliver on his education promises in 2024 and beyond.
- Ryan Walters is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Oklahoma.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.