Where they stand: Trump and Harris on education
The looming crisis neither one is talking about.
Good morning! It’s Friday, November 1, 2024, which means the October Surprise window has officially closed. November Surprises, here we come. Election Day is **four** days away.
All week, I’ve been covering the policy stakes of the election. So far, we’ve gone through immigration, the economy, health care, and energy. (Share them with your friends!)
Now, let’s dive into a critical issue that hasn’t been getting as much attention this cycle: education.
For several decades, education was a cornerstone topic in the country’s political discourse.
Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education. Ronald Reagan’s administration issued the influential “A Nation at Risk” report that reshaped debates around schooling. George H.W. Bush campaigned on a promise to be the “Education President.” Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all signed major education bills into law.
In the 2024 campaign, however, education policy has been largely absent from the conversation. Most of the aforementioned education pushes were orchestrated across party lines — and the issue’s retreat from the national stage has also been bipartisan, Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd, an education think tank at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, told me.
Republicans have come to view federal intervention in education policy as government overreach, Toch said. And teacher’s unions, which are major supporters of the Democrats, typically oppose efforts to judge school performance. “So when you get the right and the left opposing it, your chances of success are not great,” Toch added. Here’s what the two candidates have said about education — and what they haven’t:
Where they stand
HARRIS: The Democratic platform promises that the party will “provide free, universal preschool for four-year olds” — although Kamala Harris’ website doesn’t go quite that far, saying only that she will “fight to ensure parents can afford high-quality child care and preschool for their children.”
Harris’ site also says that she will “continue working to end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt,” also without providing specifics; presumably, she would continue the Biden administration’s loan repayment plan, provided that it survives legal challenges.
Her economic agenda calls for increased support for apprenticeship programs and other alternatives to a four-year college degree, including a pledge to “get rid of unnecessary degree requirements for hundreds of thousands of federal jobs.”
According to Toch, Harris would also be likely to increase Education Department funding for public schools. The Democratic platform expresses opposition to school vouchers, which use public funds to subsidize private school tuition for qualifying families.
Harris has spoken out against state efforts to constrain how schools teach about race and gender, accusing Republicans of attempting to “push propaganda to our children.”
TRUMP: Although the Republican platform calls for giving states leeway to “run our educational system as it should be run,” Trump has outlined several proposals for the federal government to intervene in the culture war disputes that have roiled American schools.
Last year, Trump pledged to cut federal funding for “any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” while promising to create a “new credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values.” He has also signaled plans to sign an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports, and called for the creation of a free online university (“the American Academy”) funded by taxing “excessively large private university endowments.”
Trump has promised to abolish the Education Department — although Toch noted that the effects of such a move would be muted, since most of the agency’s programs would just be transferred to another department. “You’d basically just be moving pieces around on the table,” Toch said. As proof, his campaign plans still discuss federal funding for schools (which comprises the bulk of the Education Department budget) — in the context of promising to give more funding to schools that abolish teacher tenure, “drastically cut number of school administrators,” adopt a Parental Bill of Rights, and institute direct election of school principals.
As in his first administration, Trump would likely support state efforts to offer school vouchers; he has also promised to allow parents who homeschool their children to use 529 education savings accounts to spend up to $10,000 a year per child on costs associated with homeschooling.
Where they overlap
Although it may be niche, Toch pointed to one education proposal that both parties have coalesced behind: support for project-based learning (utilizing more hands-on projects and experiential learning in classrooms instead of only tests and essays).
Toch said that, traditionally, project-based learning has been championed by progressive reformers — but it was featured in Trump’s “ten principles for great schools.”
Its inclusion on the list — which mostly consists of proposals about parent’s rights, school prayer, and combatting “woke” curricula — came as a surprise. “Why the hell he started talking about [project-based learning], I don’t know,” Toch said, but it does represent a point of commonality between Democratic and Republican education proposals.
What neither of them are talking about
Last year, U.S. reading and math scores dropped to their lowest level in decades. School absences have “exploded” since the pandemic. Many experts warn of a crisis — but you wouldn’t know it from listening to either candidate on the campaign trail.
“I’ve seen virtually no discussion from either candidate on the issue of the quality of the schooling that students are receiving in the nation’s K-12 schools,” Toch told me, partially due to Harris’ fears of upsetting her supporters in teacher’s unions and Trump’s focus on culture war issues.
What could it mean for America’s schools if Washington goes four more years without addressing the issue? “I think it could be devastating for many students,” Toch said. “We have millions of students who are struggling even to read. We have millions of students who don’t have the skills to earn their way into the middle class… We are on the precipice of a crisis in K-12 education, and none of our political leaders seem to be focused on it, much less addressing it.”
More news to know
A key inflation rate dropped to 2.1%, the closet the U.S. has been to the Fed’s 2% target since February 2021. But: The U.S. added only 12,000 jobs last month, the fewest since December 2020. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1%.
Trump: I will “protect the women of our country” from illegal migrants “whether the women like it or not.” (Harris: “Very offensive.”) … Trump: RFK Jr. will “work on women’s health” in his administration. (Harris: “No. ❤️”) … Trump: “If it were up to [Liz Cheney], we’d be in 50 different countries. She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle, standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it, when the guns are trained on her face.” (Cheney: “This is how dictators destroy free nations.”)
North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that it said stayed airborne longer than any it had previously tested — with a range that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland. Meanwhile, the U.S. is backchanneling with China about the 8,000 North Korean troops now stationed near the Russia-Ukraine border.
The official White House stenographers deemed President Biden to have said earlier this week, referring to Trump, “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” Biden’s aides altered the transcript so it said “his supporter’s,” referring only to pro-Trump comedian Tony Hinchliffe. The head of the stenographer’s office called the change a “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — an autocratic leader who champions what he calls “illiberal democracy” — says he is keeping his “fingers crossed” for a Trump victory.
JD Vance told Joe Rogan that he and Trump will win the “normal gay guy vote.”
Israel has “damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of buildings in Lebanon’s south,” per the Washington Post.
A House subcommittee referred Andrew Cuomo to the DOJ for potential prosecution, alleging that he lied to Congress about a state report on nursing home deaths from Covid.
The day ahead
Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in Janesville, Appleton, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. GloRilla, Flo Milli, Cardi B, and other performers will join the Milwaukee rally.
Gov. Tim Walz will hold campaign events in Detroit, Flint, and Traverse City, Michigan.
Former President Donald Trump will hold rallies in Warren, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is also expected to visit Dearborn, Michigan — the country’s largest Arab-majority city — becoming the first presidential candidate to do so.
Sen. JD Vance will hold rallies in Portage, Michigan, and Selma, North Carolina.
President Biden will deliver remarks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on his administration’s support for unions.
The House and Senate are on recess.
Before I go…
Here’s something fun: Conner Mantz and Clayton Young are two of the fastest men in America. In Paris this year, they clocked the fastest times by any U.S. runners in Olympic history; they have also been the two fastest American men at three major marathons.
Each time, they’ve finished back-to-back — and each time, Mantz has come out just slightly ahead, even if only by a single second.
“I’ve wondered: Do I psychologically maybe have this block, or fear of beating Conner and how it would affect our relationship?” Young told the Wall Street Journal.
The duo are also close friends — BYU grads who share a coach and train together. “I probably see Clayton more during my waking hours than I see my wife,” Mantz said.
Excellent article, Gabe, you've written on another Hot Topic here today.Great Job and will reStack ASAP 💯👍🇺🇲💙🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
Reflecting on public education of the 90s (in Florida of all places), I have great things to say about my educators and the outcomes they drove for me and my now middle-aged peers. What the heck happened?