GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that, if elected, he鈥檇 be the 鈥渘ation鈥檚 biggest cheerleader for school choice鈥� and 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.
And he said he鈥檚 a supporter of merit pay for teachers鈥攁 signature policy of both President Barack Obama and George W. Bush鈥檚 administrations鈥攁lthough he did not explain how he hopes to further the cause, .
鈥淭here is no policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly,鈥� the GOP presidential nominee said in a speech at a charter school in Cleveland. 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� Trump 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 in funding 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鈥攊f states and districts decided not to add their own money to the federal financing, the scholarships would pretty paltry.
It鈥檚 worth pointing out that a $12,000 tuition voucher , or Hillary Clinton鈥檚 daughter, Chelsea, for that matter.
Does Trump鈥檚 school choice plan sound familiar? It鈥檚 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, Trump said only that he finds it unfair that 鈥渂ad ones,鈥� referring to teachers, sometimes make 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 was started by Bush.
Trump鈥檚 main rival for the White House, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, hasn鈥檛 addressed the issue of merit pay head-on recently, but she has said repeatedly that she鈥檚 not in favor of tying teacher evaluations to test scores鈥攁lso a signature Obama policy. And when she was running for president against Obama in 2008, she wasn鈥檛 a fan of merit pay for individual teachers, even though she liked the idea for entire school staffs. (More on Clinton and Trump鈥檚 education proposals here.)
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. (.)
The charter school that Trump visited鈥攁nd where he spoke to a group of students prior to his speech鈥攄oes not exactly have a stellar academic record, according to its most recent report card. The .
Before launching into his speech, Trump thanked Ron Packard, who is the CEO of Panosophic Learning, an education company . Packard founded K12 Inc., where he also served as CEO, and left that company in 2014. K12 Inc. has been the subject of legal complaints from investors about its financial statements, and from California parents concerning the company鈥檚 claims about student enrollment and schools鈥� academic records.
Early Reaction
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. 鈥淐ongress typically doesn鈥檛 write $20 billion checks for programs without a real mandate,鈥� she said.
But she also said the plan is very ambitious, and 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. 鈥淚t鈥檚 dramatically more money than any other candidate has talked about for school choice,鈥� Allen said.
But the National Education Association, a 3 million member union which has endorsed Clinton, quickly denounced the plan.
鈥淒onald Trump isn鈥檛 serious about doing what鈥檚 best for our students, and he鈥檚 clueless about what works,鈥� said Lily Eskelsen Garc铆a, the president of the NEA. 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�
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reaches to shake hands with Egunjobi Songofunmi during a meeting with students and educators before a speech on school choice on Thursday at Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy in Cleveland.--Evan Vucci/AP