Biden Limits School Choice

Jan 27, 2022

BIDEN’S AGENDA IS HURTING PARENTS AND DIVIDING STUDENTS

This School Choice Week, Democrats continue to stand in the way of school choice and are prioritizing teachers’ unions over parents and kids.
Biden and Democrats don’t care about children as they close schools, force masks on preschoolers, limit school choice and allow critical race theory (CRT) to be taught.
- The Biden administration even solicited a letter from the National School Boards Association to the DOJ that compared concerned parents to domestic terrorists.
Now, Democrats are speaking out against removing mask mandates despite the minimal effectiveness and harmful effects they have on children.
While Democrats have been attacking parents and closing schools, Republicans have helped to create programs in seven states allowing at least 3.6 million additional students the ability to participate in school choice programs.

BIDEN OPPOSES SCHOOL CHOICE, PARENTS SUPPORT IT

Biden has failed to expand school choice for those who need it the most.
Biden was always against school choice, voting against the only congressionally approved school choice program in Washington, D.C. when he was a senator in 2004.
Despite Biden’s stance, support for school choice is overwhelming, with 70 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of all registered voters in favor of school choice.
- In Florida, one in six Black students is enrolled in a non-district school option – a total of more than 112,000 students.
- A study found that 75 percent of Black parents want the power to choose their child’s public school regardless of their zip code.
This support comes as a study found that each student participating in school choice programs saves taxpayers on average $7,500.
More than 20 states, the majority of which have Republican-controlled state legislatures, have expanded, created, or improved school choice in 2021.
Republicans across all levels are fighting for school choice to empower parents to make the best decisions for their families.

DEMOCRATS FORCE A RETURN TO REMOTE “LEARNING” TO APPEASE TEACHERS’ UNIONS

Despite the harmful effects of online learning, Biden and local Democrat leaders are moving backwards by once again forcing children out of the classroom and into online school this winter.
Democrat-run cities in Michigan have made every Friday online learning only for teachers’ “mental health relief,” with no other option available, leaving parents with little notice to adjust.
Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona threatened even more “emergency” school closures.
This comes as teachers’ unions in New York, Massachusetts and Illinois have threatened to walk out of schools if they do not return to online “learning.”
This rapid return to virtual “learning” has parents worried, as nearly all students are falling behind again after 97 percent of educators reported some learning loss last school year.
- This is even worse in majority Black schools, where the share of students performing below grade level in math increased by 17 percentage points over the past year.

DEMOCRATS WANT TO MASK PRESCHOOLERS

Democrats across the country continue to impose and support mask mandates for children in schools despite inconclusive CDC studies on masking and European CDC recommendations against masking.
In New York, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul re-imposed mask mandates in schools despite her refusal to wear a mask when meeting with students.
Meanwhile in Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin removed the mask mandate in the state’s schools.
- Students in Democrat-run localities of Virginia are facing discrimination for choosing not to wear masks by being separated from their peers and being forced into plexiglass boxes in classrooms.
In California, this was taken a step further after a student in Los Angeles was removed from class due to being unvaccinated.
Masking young children is having detrimental effects, with one speech therapist reporting a 364 percent increase in referrals of babies and toddlers that are speech delayed due to over-masking.

DEMOCRATS STAND AGAINST PARENTS

Across the Biden administration and across the country Democrats have taken a stand against parental involvement in schools, even comparing concerned parents to domestic terrorists.
The Biden administration had a central role soliciting and colluding with a National School Board Association letter that called for an investigation into concerned parents for possible “domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” then misleading Congress about their role in this scandal.
The Democrat Party of Michigan tweeted that parents’ should not have control over what their children are taught in school.
In Virginia, Democrats in the General Assembly refused to stand when Governor Glenn Youngkin said parents “have a fundamental right, enshrined in law by this General Assembly, to make decisions with regard to your child’s upbringing, education, and care.”
Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to acknowledge that parents know what is best for their children’s health and safety, instead saying “The president believes that public health officials have the best guidance.

DEMOCRATS ARE PROMOTING CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN SCHOOL

While students are struggling, Democrats are fundamentally changing what students are learning by pushing divisive critical race theory in the classroom.
Biden has incorporated CRT throughout his administration:
- Biden rescinded President Trump’s executive order banning critical race theory training in the federal government on his first day in office.
- Biden’s newest nominee for a high role at the Department of Education, LaWanda Toney, is a prominent critical race theory advocate.
This fall in Democrat-run Virginia, Loudin County spent $314,000 on CRT coaching for its teachers and for a presentation on “Introduction to Critical Race Theory” for its teachers.
In Minnesota, nearly 100 teachers signed onto a letter to “continue our commitment” in teaching CRT despite opposition by Republican state legislators.

DEMOCRATS ATTEMPT TO REMOVE ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE THEIR SOCIALIST POLICIES

As Democrats allow CRT to dominate school curriculums, in 14 Republican led states governors and state legislators have taken action to ban CRT from being taught in public schools.
Democrats at all levels are removing those that seek to oppose their far-left socialist policies taking over schools.
- In Indianapolis, a teacher was banned from school buildings, blocked from his email account, and put on leave for simply explaining that the city’s schools were forcing CRT onto children.
- In Massachusetts, a teacher running for school board was fired from her position as a math teacher for posting videos opposing CRT online.
- In Connecticut, a second-grade teacher chose to resign rather than be forced to teach CRT because she “felt more like a political activist than a teacher in my own classroom.”