Covid Panic Porn Opens a Schools Voucher Moment for President Trump

Democrat COVID panic porn has led to an unprecedented opportunity to take back institutions hijacked by the Democrats. They have destroyed our public education system. Now is our moment. Think of it as the law of unintended consequences.

Covid Crisis Opens a Schools Voucher Moment for Trump

Covid Crisis Opens a Schools Voucher Moment for Trump

Editorial of The New York Sun | September 19, 2020

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Never let a crisis go to waste, it’s said. The crisis that beckons at the moment is that which the Covid pandemic has precipitated in our public schools. It is laying bare how our K-12 education serves teachers unions more than their customers, meaning parents. Could this be a moment for President Trump to launch a national schools voucher for parents scrambling to get their children back to school — and corner Joe Biden?

On Thursday, three days before New York City’s public schools were due to return to in-classroom learning, parents learned that the opening for grades between eight and twelve will be delayed — until October. The New York Post, which has been all over the schools story, attributes the retreat to “mounting pressure from unions and elected officials.” It quotes some of them as being concerned about safety and other practicalities.

We’re not here to sort out these details. Rather, we’re focused on a broader issue. New York, moreover, is but one among what Education Week tallies as more than 13,000 public school systems in the country. EW has been able, so far, to chart how 900 of the systems are dealing with the covid crisis. What the crisis says to us is: empower parents to make the choices on where to educate their children.

And what better way for Mr. Trump to show his party stands with parents? The idea would be to expand a proven idea so that families across the country get a cash voucher for the education of their choosing: charter, private, religious, or home. Let the money follow the parents rather than to a set school. Milton Friedman began laying out the logic of vouchers more than 60 years ago. The idea shines brighter than ever.

This is already starting to percolate up from the states, in many of which various iterations of vouchers already exist. The covid crisis is showing the virtues of choice. Earlier this month, North Carolina passed, as part of its Corona Virus Relief Act, a measure to expand school choice options this year. The measure, the News & Observer reports, is “being praised as a victory for parents,” even if critics worry about public schools.

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A national voucher program would not need to replace our burgeoning charter schools. Charter systems such as BASIS or the Great Heart Schools in Arizona, say, or Success Academies in New York have shown how eager parents are for choice, whether within or without the public school system. Governor DeSantis demonstrated this in Florida, where he backed school choice for lower earners in the Sunshine State. The idea here would be to take vouchers national.

We understand that the kind of legislation needed for that, and the budgetary work, isn’t going to happen between now and November 3. This, though, would be a chance for Mr. Trump to mark the kind of principles he would pursue if re-elected. “I’m with you,” he likes to say. In this case he could mark vouchers as particularly attractive to families of minority students trapped in failing public schools.

Mr. Trump could even start in North Carolina, which Secretary DeVos recently visited to show her support for efforts to keep schools open for pupils, despite resistance from public school teachers. What a time for Mr. Trump to visit the Tarheel State, which is now too close to call, to talk about following North Carolina’s leader with a voucher program at the national level. Americans seem to be hungering for options. An aide at the Home School Legal Defense Association reckons we could see a 500% increase in homeschooled students this autumn.

In any case, school vouchers are a far better rallying point than guaranteed income, or further payroll protection, both basically entitlements and work deterrents for grown ups. Mr. Trump wouldn’t need to solve the problem before the election. Just to signal the kind of new thinking the crisis has engendered in his policy shop. Given the failures of our school systems, the time is right for vouchers. Particularly since no crisis should be wasted.