One important takeaway from the first Republican presidential primary debate was that every candidate shared lackluster views on education.
The GOP has not developed a coherent position on this crucial issue. Sure, they have a few talking points: They want to abolish the Department of Education, break up teachers unions, protect children from leftist radicals, and implement some kind of school choice. But this doesn’t come close to a comprehensive vision of an issue that affects all Americans and will largely determine the trajectory of the country’s future.
Assuming the candidates received their wishes, how would this work out? In all likelihood, this would mean that the federal government would save billions of dollars by offering fewer grants to needy college students and underprivileged schools. Teachers in all states would lose their leverage in negotiating a fair wage and better working conditions. And a whole new industry of education scammers would crop up to con unwitting parents out of their school vouchers.
These ostensible “reforms” could be made without such negative outcomes — and I’ve argued for some of them myself — but only if the reformers did their homework and took the time to understand how these systems and processes worked.
Unfortunately, the Democrat Party is even worse on education. Even as they claim to be pro-teacher and defend teachers unions (who fund their campaigns in turn), they undermine this by routinely attacking parents. They ignore the rampant decay and dysfunction of so many public school systems,
