An attempt at school choice fell short during Trump’s first term. He may now have a more willing Congress

WASHINGTON — The election of Donald Trump gives the White House back a school choice ally, this time with a Republican-controlled Senate — and possibly the House of Representatives — that could provide more support for proposals that failed during his first term.

Although proposals to expand private education suffered high-profile defeats in several states, Trump’s victory has brought new optimism among advocates of supporting school choice at the federal level. One of their top priorities: tax breaks for donations to organizations that provide private school scholarships.

Jim Blew, who served as assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education during the first Trump administration, said he is hopeful the new Congress will greenlight ideas like tax breaks for college scholarships.

“The new members are all very clearly supportive of school choice, and I think this is going to change the dynamic,” said Blew, co-founder of the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute.

Private school choice includes several ways to use taxpayer dollars to support education outside of traditional public schools, including vouchers, education savings accounts and tax credit scholarships. The idea of ​​giving this option to all families, regardless of income — known as universal private school choice — has exploded in popularity in recent years and is now law in a dozen states. Nearly three dozen states have some form of private school choice.

Still, the concept has faced resistance — and not just from groups like teachers unions that have long advocated keeping public money in public schools. Some conservatives in states with large rural communities have questioned the merits of the programs, citing the lack of private schools in sparsely populated areas. In those areas, public school districts are often the largest employers.

In Tuesday’s elections, voters in Kentucky rejected a measure that would allow public funding for private school attendance, and Nebraska voted to partially repeal a law that uses taxpayer money to subsidize private education. A proposed constitutional amendment in Colorado that would have established schoolchildren’s “right to choose school” was also defeated.

Concerns about the drain of money from public education appeared to be gaining ground in deep-red Kentucky and Nebraska. Ferial Pearson, the president of a Nebraska organization that advocates for public education, said she would remain committed to providing public schools “the support and resources they need to thrive.”

In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday that voters were sending a clear message that taxpayer money should go to public schools.

“This should end any debate. And this should put an end to all attempts to take money from our public schools and send them to unaccountable private schools,” Beshear said at a news conference. He renewed his push for bigger pay increases for public school teachers and other school employees, along with his plan to establish universal pre-K across Kentucky.

Unsurprisingly to some observers, even states that voted for Trump took a stand against school choice.

“Especially in the wake of the pandemic, with all the school closures, learning loss and chronic absenteeism, parents want something different — but they also love their public schools,” said Liz Cohen, director of policy at FutureEd, an independent research center at Georgetown University. “People want something new, but that doesn’t mean they want to get rid of everything.”

Cohen, who has studied the expansion of private school choice across the country, emphasized that decisions about a ballot measure “feel a lot more local and specific than who you vote for for president.”

During his campaign, Trump touted school choice as a form of expanded parental rights, aimed at countering what conservative critics describe as left-wing indoctrination in the classroom and promoting a free-market approach to education.

One of his promises on the platform is to “serve as a champion for America’s homeschooling families” and “protect the God-given right of every parent to be a steward of their children’s education.” He proposes letting homeschooling families use 529 college savings plans to pay for their children’s education costs, an option he floated during his first term for families with private schools.

During that period, Trump tapped Betsy DeVos – a staunch supporter of school choice – as his education secretary. However, that board had difficulty getting the school choice fields off the ground. An attempt to provide federal tax breaks for scholarship donations failed, as did proposals to cut federal public school programs by billions of dollars.

With a more favorable Congress, these initiatives could have a better chance. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and front-runner to chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has supported tax incentives for scholarship donations. And Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he will focus the next Congress on “maximizing school choice for parents and holding woke college administrators accountable.”

Some conservatives argue that there would be merits in leaving the issue to states.

“I worry that we will return to the political dynamics of Trump’s first term, which were very bad for the charter school industry in blue states,” said Michael Petrilli, the president of the Fordham Institute, a right-wing thinker. tank. “Because Trump strongly supported school choice, including charter schools, he made these issues radioactive to the left, sidelining or silencing reform-minded Democrats.”

In other races across the country, preliminary results show that wins for school board candidates in Los Angeles and Chicago were concentrated among candidates who promoted traditional public education over alternatives such as charters.

In Texas, several pro-voucher lawmakers, backed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, won their races. Abbott had tried to unseat Republican lawmakers who voted against a plan to subsidize private school education with public money. The newly elected candidates could give Abbott the votes needed to pass that voucher legislation.

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Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report from Louisville, Kentucky.