Those on the left love to cry out that the children are our future. That statement is not wrong, taken by itself; in fact, it’s quite obvious. But the left has largely destroyed the United States’ K-12 education system. Between the leftist-controlled teachers’ unions and the purveying of racial and gender-based nitwittery, our basic education system has been collapsing for a few decades now.
On Wednesday, President Trump signed two executive orders (EO) intended to address this decline.
The first, entitled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” states in part:
Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority. For example, steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designated for females may contravene Federal laws that protect parental rights, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and sex-based equality and opportunity, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). Similarly, demanding acquiescence to “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias,” actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.
My Administration will enforce the law to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.; Title IX, 20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.; FERPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232g; and the PPRA, 20 U.S.C. 1232h.
While schools are primarily controlled by municipal and county governments, the federal government, for better or worse, still wields a big stick. The Trump administration has not only the laws cited in the EO but also a big federal funding hammer to swing.
But this order must be accompanied by something else as well: It’s not enough to stop teaching the current loads of horse squeeze that our kids are subjected to. There must be a ground-up reform in what is taught, as well, with a renewed emphasis on such things as reading, writing, mathematics, and civics.
This brings us to the second EO, titled “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families.” This EO states in part:
When our public education system fails such a large segment of society, it hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities. For this reason, more than a dozen States have enacted universal K-12 scholarship programs, allowing families — rather than the government — to choose the best educational setting for their children. These States have highlighted the most promising avenue for education reform: educational choice for families and competition for residentially assigned, government-run public schools. The growing body of rigorous research demonstrates that well-designed education-freedom programs improve student achievement and cause nearby public schools to improve their performance.
Here’s the nub:
Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Education shall issue guidance regarding how States can use Federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice initiatives.
This will still require legislative action at the state and local levels. As of this month, 28 states have some form of school choice. These programs are growing more popular, particularly in our major cities where parents are contending with failing public schools – not only schools that are pushing everything from climate panic-mongering to gender ideology while graduating illiterates.
See Related: Trump Executive Order Bans Federal Funds for Pediatric Transgender Procedures
Bad News for Teachers’ Unions – New Poll Says Majority of Voters Not Happy With Education System
These orders will open up resources for innovation in education while hopefully clamping down on the teaching of the kinds of nitwittery described above, but the expansion of school choice, be it through a voucher system or (preferably) by just getting government out of education altogether, is perhaps the single greatest reform we could make. Let a thousand flowers bloom, let parents decide, and let each school and each system be a laboratory in education.
The end goal? Simple. K-12 education has one purpose and only one purpose: To equip young people with the skills they need to move ahead in life, be it into higher education or the workplace. Education is not meant to indoctrinate but to inform – not to brainwash, but to foster independent thinking and skills. Skills like reading, writing, and mathematics; information like civics and history, the better to understand their place in society and our place in history.
Democrats and the teachers’ unions (but I repeat myself) will fight this every step of the way. But it is way past time for some changes in the American education system. If these orders help get that ball rolling, good. Removing government from education altogether would be ideal, but politics is the art of the possible, and this is a step in the right direction.
