As the old saying goes, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters will not be America’s next secretary of education.
The bad news is that the person President-Elect Donald Trump has tapped for the position, Linda McMahon, has vowed to make private school vouchers a top priority.
Walters had been clearly angling for the job. He has repeatedly tried to infuse the state’s public schools with Christian Nationalism and wants to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to put Trump Bibles in every classroom in Oklahoma. Most recently, he ordered every public school in the state to show a video to students during which Walters blasts “woke teachers unions” and urges kids to pray for Trump. Forgive us for feeling a little schadenfreude for seeing him get passed over.
But the appointment of McMahon, who ran the Small Business Administration from 2017-19 and has no background in education, will present its own set of challenges. Trump specifically mentioned “school choice” (a euphemism for vouchers) in a statement announcing McMahon’s appointment. And McMahon has served as chairwoman at America First Policy Institute, which calls for expanding voucher programs.
During his first term in office, Trump proposed spending a staggering $5 billion on a nationwide voucher plan. Thankfully, it didn’t go anywhere. But the political landscape has shifted since then, making this threat all too real.
One thing hasn’t changed, though: Americans don’t like school vouchers. We saw this as recently as earlier this month when voters in three states – Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska – voted against voucher schemes at the ballot box.
These results are in line with a string of anti-voucher votes in the states going back to 1967. Given the opportunity to vote directly on taxpayer aid to private schools, the people reject it – every time.
Americans rely on the public school system, which educates 90% of our children. Unlike private schools, which are free to discriminate in hiring staff and admitting students and don’t answer to democratically elected school boards, public schools are a visible manifestation of the public good.
Trump, McMahon and yes, even Walters, need to hear a simple message loud and clear: Public funds for public schools!
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
