Public education reform missing from 2024 presidential platforms
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Former President Donald Trump is vowing to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and Vice President Kamala Harris wants to stem school shootings. Beyond that, neither has offered detailed plans for the nation's K-12 public school system, giving them a mandate to do nothing.
Why it matters: Student reading scores have fallen to 20-year lows, states are facing teacher shortages and racial segregation in schools has returned to levels not seen since the 1960s.
The big picture: American public schools are growing more separate and unequal even though the country is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever.
- A disparity in school counselors is disproportionately hurting students of color applying to college amid a post-affirmative action world.
- School closures during the pandemic exposed deep systemic inequalities in school technology access, from the Navajo Nation to Appalachia, that still exist today.
Catch up quick: Republicans pledged in the RNC platform last month to implement universal school choice, boost parental rights and promote "patriotic" standards for civics education.
- These are ideas pushed by Trump as he's vowed "to close the (U.S.) Department of Education, move education back to the states" — a dream of conservatives going back to President Reagan.
- Democrats have denounced conservative-led efforts to ban books and played up the biography of vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, a former school teacher and high school coach.
- Harris, a product of school busing and school desegregation as a child, has offered few details on what she'd do on education.
Zoom in: Education advocates are seeking a variety of reforms, from how school boundaries are shaped and recruiting more teachers of color to improving student achievement.
Between the lines: Both candidates instead have shaped their campaigns around personal insults and general promises to expand access to the "American Dream" for the middle class, Thomas Holyoke, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno, tells Axios.
- "Neither party is talking about much of anything in terms of actual policy ideas. It seems like both parties are going for strategic vagueness."
- Holyoke said that's because both sides are focusing on winning over undecideds in swing states and don't want any detailed policy proposals to jeopardize that outreach.
What they're saying: "I'm so depressed," Amanda Rae Aragon, executive director of the education advocacy group NewMexicoKidsCAN, tells Axios.
- "It's kind of like every person out is out for themselves. Hope you get to live in a good school district. Hope your attendance boundary is to a good school because no one is really putting a plan together to make it better."
- Tim DeRoche, founder and president of the nonpartisan education watchdog Available to All, tells Axios that political "tribalism" is preventing any new conversations about education reform.
- "I do fear that what we lose in a nuanced perceptive is why the American Dream is harder for more people to access these days. I would argue that one of the core reasons is that our school system isn't doing the job."
Flashback: Before 2016, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and activists took on conservatives who wanted local control of schools and left-leaning teachers' unions who opposed accountability measures.
- President George W. Bush got his signature No Child Left Behind Act passed with the help of Democratic Sen. Ted. Kennedy, for example.
- President Obama also signed his Race to the Top law with the help of Republicans.
