{"id":9589,"date":"2024-07-17T15:30:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=9589"},"modified":"2024-07-17T15:30:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T15:30:55","slug":"the-gop-platform-calls-for-universal-school-choice-what-would-that-mean-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/17\/the-gop-platform-calls-for-universal-school-choice-what-would-that-mean-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"The GOP platform calls for ‘universal school choice.’ What would that mean for students?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE – Students and parents rally at the Ohio Statehouse in support of possible changes that would increase eligibility for taxpayer-funded school vouchers to K-12 students statewide, May 17, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo\/Samantha Hendrickson, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press<\/a><\/p>\n

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jul 11, 2024 (AP): National Republicans are poised to support \u201cuniversal school choice\u201d as part of the policy platform they adopt at next week\u2019s convention in Milwaukee, a goal supporters see as the culmination of decades advocating for parents\u2019 autonomy to pick their children\u2019s schools. To opponents, it’s a thinly veiled blueprint for gutting public education.<\/p>\n

The term can mean different things to different people \u2014 from erasing school boundaries, to open enrollment, to being able to curate your child\u2019s individual curriculum, to parental control over K-12 course content.<\/p>\n

But education experts across the political spectrum interpret the GOP platform\u2019s wording as favoring the type of approach adopted in states like\u00a0West Virginia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ohio<\/a>, which make available\u00a0taxpayer-funded vouchers, or scholarships,<\/a>\u00a0that can follow a child regardless of income to any public or private school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our way of thinking, this is kind of your money, your children and your choice for where they want to go to school,\u201d said Lisa B. Nelson, CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which launched an Education Freedom Alliance in January to fight for just that. About a dozen states now have such programs, and proposals are in play in another 16, according to the alliance.<\/p>\n

Nelson said this is the first time the GOP platform has gone beyond merely supporting school choice to calling for it as a universal option. It remains unclear how that would come to pass, given the platform also calls for shuttering the U.S. Department of Education, founded in 1979, and sending education policy-making \u201cback to the States, where it belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaign didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment on the platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans believe families should be empowered to choose the best Education for their children,\u201d the platform says.<\/p>\n

James Singer, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden\u2019s re-election campaign, said eliminating the department \u2014 which oversees\u00a0Head Start<\/a>, administers college\u00a0financial aid programs<\/a>, conducts education\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0and enforces\u00a0civil rights laws<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 \u201cisn\u2019t just bad policy, it would rip vital support away from our most vulnerable children, leaving them less likely to graduate from high school or attend college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chad Aldis, vice president for Ohio policy at the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said declaring universal school choice as a policy goal and carrying it out are two very different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think empowering families with high-quality options is the right approach, but the details on how much funding is available, whether there are income constraints, those are the types of questions that would have to be answered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

State programs have faced a host of legal and practical questions as they’ve expanded voucher programs. The scholarships were once available only to low-income students in academically struggling districts, but they’ve evolved into catch-all offerings applicable to public, private, religious and charter schools. Opponents argue the expansive programs take money away from public schools that serve most of the country\u2019s students and benefit higher-income families choosing to attend expensive private or\u00a0religious schools.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hope Scholarship Program in West Virginia\u00a0survived a constitutional challenge<\/a>\u00a0in 2022, but the number of school districts signing onto a lawsuit against Ohio\u2019s EdChoice has ballooned since the voucher program became universal last summer.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Republican plank also calls for treating \u201cHomeschooling Families equally,\u201d which could take universality to yet another level.<\/p>\n

Kim Anderson, executive director of the National Education Association, the nation\u2019s largest teachers union, said Republicans\u2019 plan would \u201cthrow chaos into the lives of American families\u201d without addressing what parents tell her members are their two highest priorities: the availability of mental health services and school safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic education has been a common good in this country since its inception, and to eliminate public education puts our democracy and our economy and the fabric of a diverse, inclusive society at risk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other policy priorities include: stripping federal funds from any school that engages in \u201cinappropriate political indoctrination,\u201d guaranteeing that students can pray and read the Bible in school, \u201chardening\u201d schools\u2019 disciplinary standards as a way of curbing violence, eliminating teacher tenure and adopting merit pay, and rejecting efforts to nationalize civics education.<\/p>\n

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, decried the entire GOP education platform, saying it sets up \u201ca defunding mechanism and a mechanism to give a tax break to the wealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy question to them is, what are they afraid of?\u201d she said. \u201cWhy are they afraid of critical thinking? Why are they afraid of freedom to learn and freedom to teach? Why are they afraid of honest history? Why are they afraid of diversity?\u201d<\/p>\n

ALEC\u2019s Nelson said supporters of choice believe vigorous competition makes all schools better.<\/p>\n

And calls for broadening school choice are not coming exclusively from Republicans. In Louisiana, six Democrats voted in favor of a universal school choice bill in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I watch children in poverty, trapped in failing schools, who can hardly read, I\u2019d be damned if I will continue to defend the status quo,” Democratic Rep. Jason Hughes, who represents New Orleans, opined on the floor before casting his vote.<\/p>\n

Democrats also have voted in favor of expanded school choice in Nebraska and Pennsylvania. In Georgia, state Rep. Mesha Mainor\u00a0left the party last year<\/a>\u00a0in part because of a differences over school vouchers.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s\u00a0standards<\/a>\u00a0for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at\u00a0AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jul 11, 2024 (AP): National Republicans are poised to support \u201cuniversal school choice\u201d as part of the policy platform they adopt at next week\u2019s convention in Milwaukee, a goal supporters see as the culmination of decades advocating for parents\u2019 autonomy to pick their children\u2019s schools. To opponents,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[211],"class_list":["post-9589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",700,467,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",700,467,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",700,467,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",700,467,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",700,467,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice-700x462.jpg",700,462,true],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice-320x240.jpg",320,240,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice.jpg",500,334,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/school-of-choice-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jul 11, 2024 (AP): National Republicans are poised to support \u201cuniversal school choice\u201d as part of the policy platform they adopt at next week\u2019s convention in Milwaukee, a goal supporters see as the culmination of decades advocating for parents\u2019 autonomy to pick their children\u2019s schools. To opponents,","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9591,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9589\/revisions\/9591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9589"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=9589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}