Choice and “reproductive freedom” are centerpieces of Kamala Harris’s campaign, and likely a key reason why she enjoys a strong polling advantage over Donald Trump with women. Republicans have a potent choice issue, too—school choice—though it’s one that they’ve inexplicably ignored of late. Trump somehow didn’t find time to mention it in his 92-minute, 12,353-word RNC speech. His only reference to education was a promise to “restore patriotism to our schools.” The word uttered most frequently at the convention was “Trump,” with more than 1,000 references. No education-related term ranked as one of the top 30 words spoken at the convention.
Trump also failed to mention school choice at recent rallies in Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and in Virginia, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Nor did he mention school choice at a recent rally in my home state, Florida, where we have universal school choice, which is helping me put my sons through Catholic schools. In Pinellas County, where I live, parents (of any income) can get a voucher worth $8,203 per K-3 student, $7,574 for each grade 4-8 student, and $7,512 for each high school student. The money goes from state coffers straight to the school, and it couldn’t be easier. I have a friend with four kids who will soon be saving $30,000 per year. Imagine how many families across the country would love to have a universal school choice program like ours.
In Trump’s standard stump speeches this year, where he typically rambles for at least an hour, he says little about education beyond the line about “restoring patriotism” and his pledges to cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity” and other “inappropriate content,” and to withhold funding to schools implementing mask or vaccine mandates.
The only recent mentions I can find of school choice in Trump speeches came in Phoenix and Philadelphia about a month ago. In Phoenix, he referenced it only in passing, saying, “You have to have a choice also in education . . . and have a choice in what you buy.” In Philadelphia, he mentioned school choice but spent only 15 seconds on the topic in a one-hour speech.
Even stranger than his de-emphasis of this winning issue is the fact that school choice isn’t one of 20 platform issues listed on his campaign website. The only education-related platform item is Trump’s aforementioned pledge to deny funding to schools pushing CRT, “radical gender ideology” and other “inappropriate” content. Schools shouldn’t be left-wing indoctrination factories, for sure, but if Republicans think that moms are losing more sleep over CRT than finding quality schools that they can afford, they’re mistaken.
According to a 2023 poll from RealClear Opinion Research, 71 percent of Americans, including 66 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of independents, support school choice, with just 13 percent opposed. In a recent CNN poll, Trump is 20 points underwater with women on favorability. A recent New York Times poll has Harris beating him by 14 points with women and shows that 54 percent of women have a strongly unfavorable view of him. Here in Florida, Ron DeSantis won the female vote and the Hispanic vote, and universal school choice were big parts of his success.
Education is largely a state and local issue, but as the leader of his party, a president must articulate what the GOP stands for and use his bully pulpit to push issues like school choice. And the president can champion legislation and issue executive orders, like the one Trump issued shortly before he left office in 2021 letting states use their share of money from a federal anti-poverty program to offer vouchers to help disadvantaged families pay for private school tuition.
Trump used to talk about school choice more frequently and with more conviction. In 2016, he called it “the new civil rights issue of our time.” And in 2020, after signing the executive order on school choice, he said, “Frankly, school choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond, because all children have to have access to quality education. A child’s zip code in America should never determine their future, and that’s what was happening.”
Meantime, in recent remarks to the American Federation of Teachers—a major donor to the Democratic Party and strong opponent of school choice—Harris called the organization’s members “visionaries.” She spoke about “reproductive freedom” and the importance of allowing every worker to organize and join a union. Of course, she didn’t mention giving parents the freedom to choose their children’s schools because her party is beholden to the teacher’s unions—a major liability that Trump isn’t exposing and the media certainly won’t touch.
It’s unlikely that the issue will come up at a debate, if there is one, because moderators tend not to raise subjects favorable to Republicans unless they are so critical—like, say, the economy—that they can’t get away with avoiding it. In fact, the media is now framing the election with questions like: “Is America ready for a black female candidate?” In this context, Republicans would be foolish not to highlight the fact that Democrats are content to leave minority children in failing schools to mollify the teacher’s unions.
It’s hard to imagine Harris giving a speech with no reference to abortion between now and Election Day. Trump should be similarly consistent in pushing school choice, but he seems uninterested in doing so. It’s hard to say whether Trump’s abandonment of the issue has anything to do with his associating the subject with DeSantis, his vanquished rival. Whatever the explanation, if Republicans want to perform better with women voters, they’d better start focusing on school choice before it’s too late.
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