School choice advocates are optimistic about Education Secretary Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump‘s plans to reinvigorate the Republican-led efforts to expand parents’ options for their children’s education.
McMahon has argued that school choice improves public schools and said Thursday that President Donald Trump intends to “provide quality education through school choice.” In January, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to outline how states can use grants to enable more parents to send their children to faith-based and private institutions.
Denisha Allen, who served as school choice and youth liaison to the secretary of education during Trump’s first administration, applauded McMahon’s Senate confirmation.
“President Trump has said he’s a strong believer in school choice, and Secretary McMahon has long been a key advocate on this issue,” Allen told the Washington Examiner. “Having them both tackling the failed bureaucracies in Washington and focusing on returning education to the states and families is game-changing.”
Allen added that the Educational Choice for Children Act, introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), which will offer every state a $10 billion tax credit for education scholarships to students, would be a “game changer” if passed. School choice advocates have been making progress at the state level over the last few years, but if congressional Republicans fall in line on Trump’s school choice agenda, that would be a major victory at the national level.
American Federation for Children CEO Tommy Schultz also celebrated McMahon’s confirmation, calling her “the right leader to work with President Trump to lead us out of an undeclared state of emergency across our K-12 system” in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Congress needs to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act, which Secretary McMahon and President Trump support,” he added.
According to Allen, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, school choice — whether through vouchers, education savings accounts, or tax credit scholarships — has greatly benefited students, including herself.
“Education is not one-size-fits-all, and I was able to go from failing the third grade twice to being the first in my family to go to college and graduate school, all thanks to Florida’s school choice programs,” Allen told the Washington Examiner. “Now there are millions more students who have benefited or soon will.”
However, Eric Duncan, EdTrust’s director of P-12 policy, is highly critical of the school voucher system, saying it takes away funding from low income schools.
“Most people who use vouchers and use them for their education already have resources,” Duncan told the Washington Examiner. “They’re the ones that are already in private schools, and they use those funds to supplement their education.”
Duncan also argued that Trump’s plans to eliminate the Education Department may get in the way of his plans for school choice since charter school programs are federally funded. However, eliminating the department would not cut federal education funding altogether, and essential responsibilities would be handed off to other departments. For example, civil rights enforcement would likely go to the Justice Department and student loans would likely go to the Treasury.
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Allen argued that dismantling the Education Department would not prevent the Trump administration from working to improve access to school choice.
“Dismantling a failed bureaucracy doesn’t mean that other priorities can’t be done, and done better, within other departments or at the state level,” Allen said. “We need to support all forms of school choice and do whatever we can to return education back to the states and the families.”
