Joe Biden’s policies are bad news for students and parents

 

Joe Biden’s policies are bad news for students and parents. 

The Biden platform is filled with promises to shovel more money toward a broken education system that fails millions of kids — and would shut off programs that give families the freedom to send their kids to better schools.

School choice is one of the most important issues for American families and future generations. Yet on point after point, Biden has made clear he wants to restrict choice and repeal programs that work.
 

- Voucher Programs. Biden says he opposes any plan that lets students pay for private school using the money that would have been spent on their public school — which is called a voucher. He has already promised to end one voucher system in D.C., the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which overwhelmingly benefits Black and Hispanic students.

- Charter Schools. Biden didn’t mince words: “I am not a charter school fan.” Yet charter schools — which are public schools that have the freedom to innovate — have been proven to work, especially for students from low-income communities and urban areas.

- Scholarship Programs. The Biden-Sanders unity platform explicitly opposes the creation of tax credit scholarships, which encourage people to make donations that help kids attend better schools. Once again, these programs work for the neediest students.

- Education Savings Accounts. The Biden-Sanders platform also opposes letting families set up a tax-deductible account to help pay for schooling costs and learning materials. Biden is against giving families even a little control over their kids’ education.

What do Biden’s education policies have in common? They are exactly what teachers unions want. The unions fear any competition which could make them look bad or force larger reforms to the traditional schooling model. 

Biden’s positions are similar in another way, too: They would hurt countless kids who couldn’t get the world-class education they deserve. America deserves better than more of the failing educational status quo.