GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is pledging that, if elected, he鈥檇 be the 鈥渘ation鈥檚 biggest cheerleader for school choice鈥� and would offer states the chance to use $20 billion in federal money to create vouchers allowing children in poverty to attend the public, charter, or private school of their choice.
In a speech at a charter school in Cleveland, he also said he鈥檚 a supporter of merit pay for teachers鈥攁 signature policy of both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush鈥檚 administrations鈥攁lthough he did not explain how he hopes to further the cause, other than rhetorically taking aim at tenure.
鈥淭here is no policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淭he Democratic Party has trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth鈥� in struggling schools.
鈥淲e want every inner-city child in America to have the freedom to attend any school,鈥� he said.
Trump said that the $20 billion in federal funds could be combined with more than $100 billion in state and local money to create vouchers of up to $12,000 annually for the nation鈥檚 poorest kids.
He did not say where the $20 billion would come from, but it鈥檚 possible he was referring to Title I money for disadvantaged students, funded at about $15.5 billion right now. His plan would depend on state and local cooperation: If states and districts decided not to add their own money to the federal financing, the scholarships would be pretty paltry.
Common Theme
Trump鈥檚 school choice plan is similar to what 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney proposed for K-12 in 2012.
And last year, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., introduced amendments to what became the Every Student Succeeds Act that would have allowed federal money to follow students to the school of their choice, public or private. Those amendments failed to get enough support to pass the House or Senate.
But Messer said in an interview this summer that he thinks the policy could get new life under a potential Trump administration.
On merit pay for teachers, Trump said only that he finds it unfair that 鈥渂ad ones鈥� sometimes earn 鈥渕ore than the good ones.鈥� Obama also encouraged districts to adopt performance pay, through the Race to the Top competition and the $230 million Teacher Incentive Fund, which Bush started.
Trump鈥檚 main rival for the White House, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, hasn鈥檛 addressed the issue of merit pay head-on recently, but she has said that she鈥檚 not in favor of tying teacher evaluations to test scores, which also was a signature Obama policy.
Trump also hit some of the K-12 themes he鈥檚 sounded throughout the campaign, attacking the Common Core State Standards and arguing that the United States spends more on education than most other developed countries for iffy results.
Jeanne Allen, the founder of the Center for Education Reform, which supports school choice, called the idea 鈥減ie in the sky,鈥� given the current Washington political dynamic.
But she also noted that Trump did not say the $20 billion for his school choice idea would have to come from the current U.S. Department of Education budget.
But Lily Eskelsen Garc铆a, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement that 鈥淣o matter what you call it, vouchers take dollars away from our public schools to fund private schools at taxpayers鈥� expense with little to no regard for our students.鈥�
