With Election Day approaching, voters across the country will soon cast their ballots for elected office at all levels. When we do that as Americans, we’re making a pronouncement about what kind of country we want to live in and what kind of future we want to create for posterity.
Though Democrats are running away from the issue this election cycle, education policy is central to this country’s future. As people head to the polls, they will decide between two starkly contrasted visions of education: one that prioritizes students and one that prioritizes power.
The fact of the matter is that government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all education systems just aren’t working the way that students and parents deserve. High school math scores have plummeted and are lagging behind other developed countries on the world stage.
Most people think our K-12 STEM education is average at best. Civics scores for middle schoolers are alarmingly low, and many students are showing up to college without knowing basic facts about American civics.
America has ramped up spending on K-12 education to over $15,000 per pupil on average. We are not getting what we pay for.
The simple fact is that education freedom is statistically proven to be better for students, parents, and taxpayers.
School choice programs are saving taxpayers money. Recent research from EdChoice looked at 48 education freedom programs in 26 states. Findings show these programs saved taxpayers up to $7,800 per student. Previous research from Dr. Greg Forster found similar results across 28 case studies in education freedom programs, with 25 out of 28 saving taxpayers money and zero programs costing taxpayers any more than the status quo.
And despite the lower average costs, education freedom leads to far better education outcomes. One empirical review of 33 different education freedom programs found improved outcomes for students in 31 of the studied cases. Further, a more recent case study review of 188 different such programs found overwhelmingly positive outcomes in test scores, educational attainment, and even school safety. That is why so many parents, especially those zoned to failing school districts, support greater school choice.
Unfortunately, too many school systems are controlled at various levels by radical ideologues who would rather prioritize political and social indoctrination over educational fundamentals like reading, math, science, and civics. And all of this is despite the fact that most voters are vehemently against them.
Three-quarters of people believe that schools should not teach students about changing their gender, and less than a third of them support teaching critical race theory. Meanwhile, 71% believe that schools are lowering standards instead of pushing students toward excellence.
Yet radical progressive Democrats are bent on force-feeding the public a diet of government and union-controlled education systems because this is all really about power. They realize that if they control what students are taught, then they can influence the electorate for decades after the fact.
They don’t want education freedom because, by definition, they do not get to control what goes up on the board at the front of the classroom. They cloak their agenda as in the interest of quality education but have no results to show for actually improving outcomes. They are more concerned about shaping political views of students and holding on to the power they attain by upholding the status quo.
Their efforts are an attempt at “tyranny over the minds of men,” as Jefferson would call it, and students and taxpayers get to foot the bill for it.
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The only way out of this system is freedom. We cannot achieve it through top-down approaches that are decided by an education cartel that chooses the interests of union bosses, politicians, and bureaucrats over students and parents at every available opportunity.
That’s why we need to elect former President Donald Trump. But even more than that, we need fundamental change at all levels. We need a president, a Congress, state legislatures, and local school boards that will trust and empower parents again. If we truly want to fix education, we have to abandon the sunken costs of this bureaucratic nightmare and return to the fundamentals that actually work.
Ryan Walters is the Oklahoma state superintendent, former Oklahoma education secretary, and a former teacher.