The Democratic National Convention is over, but the party’s attack on families who want better education for their children has just begun. The Democrats’ platform, adopted last week, is even more radical than the 2020 version. It unequivocally states that the party opposes education-freedom policies that empower families. Paired with Kamala Harris’s running-mate pick of teachers’ union loyalist Tim Walz over school choice semi-supporter Josh Shapiro, it’s clear that Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is calling the shots. This should serve as a red flag for parents—particularly the large numbers of historically loyal Democrats in low-income and minority communities who want to save their kids from failing schools.
While national Democrats kowtow to teachers’ union bosses, the party faithful face a painful reality. They see that the overwhelming majority of public-school students—their own children, in many cases—are struggling to learn and falling behind, a crisis that has intensified coming out of the pandemic. They also see that a growing number of other states are empowering families to find better schools for their kids. Democratic leaders should worry that their voters will ask them why those states are different. The honest answer is that these places are rejecting a unions-first, students-last platform.
While Weingarten campaigned against him, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin reminded parents of this and rode their support to victory in 2021. By contrast, former Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum promised to end the state’s popular education-freedom programs during his 2018 campaign for Florida governor. Voters, particularly black moms, made it clear they would rather vote for Ron DeSantis than be forced to return their kids to failing schools. When DeSantis won, Democrats largely had Weingarten to thank for their loss.
Parents in Philadelphia and Detroit, two overwhelmingly Democratic cities in our respective home states, also show that families haven’t toed the party line. In Philly, nearly 40 percent of students attend charters, and in the Motor City, it’s now more than half. Similarly, in nearby Milwaukee, Democrats launched the nation’s first voucher program years ago, providing a vital lifeline for students there, three-quarters of whom are minorities and 80 percent of whom are economically disadvantaged.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz should know something about the life-changing power of such commonsense policies. His state was home to the nation’s first charter school—an idea that advanced by both Democratic legislators and, notably, Weingarten’s predecessor as union boss. Vice President Harris should also know the appeal of sending your kids to better schools. Her stepchildren both attended a posh California private school that costs upward of $50,000 per year. Yet, both she and Walz now oppose any policy that would help low-income families—even those with children stuck in the worst public schools—afford to go to school elsewhere.
Chicago, the home of the 2024 DNC, offers further proof that even loyal Democrats want better opportunities for their kids than the city’s failing public schools offer. Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates sends her own child to private school, so he can learn in a place with a “curriculum that can meet his social and emotional needs.” In a city where 75 percent of students can’t read at grade level, it’s little wonder that three out of every ten Chicago teachers’ union members send their kids to private schools, as well.
Democratic voters have had enough of such “school choice for me, but not for thee” hypocrisy. A recent EdChoice survey found that 77 percent of Democrats support education savings accounts—a slightly higher share than Republicans. RealClear Opinion Research has found that nationally, Democratic support for school choice generally has risen from 59 percent to 66 percent in the past four years. It’s their own party bosses who remain the biggest barrier to their demands.
Democratic leaders will apologize for not using your preferred pronouns, but they’re not sorry for requiring your children to attend a government school system that fails to teach what a pronoun is in the first place. Families are waking up to this fact, and they’ll increasingly wonder why the Democratic Party stands with teachers’ unions over struggling children. The party ditched Joe Biden out of cold electoral necessity. Maybe it should think about doing the same with Randi Weingarten.
Photo by SAUL LOEB/Getty Images