Press Releases

For too long, power-hungry bureaucrats and self-interested teachers unions have kept students shackled to failing government-run schools. They have done everything in their power to maintain a tight monopoly on K-12 education. During the pandemic, we saw just how detrimental this can be for students. That is why we need school choice now more than ever. 

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At a recent Republican education roundtable, one concerned parent from Cook County shared that school closures have had a major impact on her children. “As far as virtual learning, I think it was really dystopian for our family,” she said. In an Education and Labor Subcommittee hearing, a father of a special needs child shared that his son felt so isolated from school closures that on his 9th birthday he asked, “Daddy, can I die for my birthday?” This heart-wrenching account of a child in real crisis shows just how harmful these school shutdowns have been to children.

We must not allow teachers unions to treat students like acceptable collateral damage. 

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Choice is the biggest weapon we have against the education bureaucracy. In the very first Federalist Paper, Alexander Hamilton boasted that America was the first country to be built on “reflection and choice” instead of “accident and force.” We have a rich tradition in this country of letting the people govern themselves. Intrinsic in self-government is choice. Education is far too important to be left to either accident or force; we must let parents choose.

According to an EdChoice poll conducted in 2021, between 74-84 percent of parents support school-choice policies. No parent wants a sub-standard education for his or her child.

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Parents know that when students are put first, they thrive. When schools have a student-first mentality, children aren’t barred from the classroom because of a disease that poses minimal risk to them, they aren’t held back to satisfy the left’s definition of equity, and standards aren’t changed so struggling students can fly under the radar. Instead, each student’s needs are addressed and met. 

The more choices parents are given, the better K-12 education will be. Our country was built on “reflection and choice;” it’s time our education system was as well.