Trump calls for federal education dollars to 'follow the student' in push for universal school choice

Former President Trump is proposing that federal education dollars "follow the student" in his possible second term, while pushing his "universal school choice policy," and stressing that he backs it "all the way." 

The former president championed school choice last week, making his strongest case yet for the movement on the federal level. 

"We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.," Trump said at an event in Milwaukee.  

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"If you want a better education for your child, Kamala Harris stands in your way," Trump said. "Kamala and the Radical Left Democrat Party want to keep Black and Hispanic children trapped in family government. I think that’s really the reason." 

The former president said he believes school choice "is the civil rights issue of our time." 

Former President Trump (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

"A child’s fate should be determined by their love of education, by their parents, by so many factors. But it can’t be determined by a ZIP code," Trump said. "And no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government-run school." 

Trump’s universal school choice would allow parents to send their children to public, private or religious schools.

Trump’s stance is reflected in the 2024 Republican Party platform. According to proponents of school choice, it recognizes a role for both federal and state governments in expanding tax credit scholarship programs and Education Savings Accounts, which currently serve more than a million K-12 students across the country. 

The Trump campaign said school choice "leads to higher graduation rates, higher parental satisfaction and involvement, lower costs, increased competition among schools, and higher reading and math test scores." 

At this point, 11 states have universal school choice, and 32 states and Washington, D.C., have at least one private school choice program – but 18 states have none. 

"Before President Trump took office, zero states had a universal school choice policy. Now, almost a dozen do, and it is in large part because of the voice and visibility that he gave to elevate the issue into the national consciousness during COVID – but even before that," former Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Digital.

"There is an increase in the number and needs of American school children with respect to alternatives to conventional public schools," Conway said. "There is an increase in resistance among Kamala Harris and Democrats to allow these types of alternatives – these types of options and choices – to be in the hands of parents." 

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are expanding their opposition to school choice, and teachers’ unions rejoiced when Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, dubbing the ticket as a major win for public educators. 

Walz is a former teachers’ union member who has said he is opposed to the school choice "agenda." 

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Teachers’ unions pushed hard to prolong school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many districts shuttered for more than a year. 

Former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Walz was a "5-alarm fire for parents and students." 

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attends an event at the White House on Aug. 12, 2020. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

As for the Democratic Party platform, Democrats support all children "no matter their ZIP code" to have access to a "quality public K-12 education and for college to be affordable for every American." 

Democrats are looking to push federal dollars toward public schools in an effort to "expand opportunities for higher education and job training." 

Harris' campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment, but her website lays out her plan to "ensure parents can afford high-quality child care and preschool for their children." 

Harris also plans to focus on working to "end the unreasonable burden of student loan debt and fight to make higher education more affordable, so that college can be a ticket to the middle class." 

Harris said she would work to "scale up programs that create good career pathways for non-college graduates." 

But Conway explained that parents are focused on having more of a role in their child's education – now more than ever. 

"There is a continuation of the parent’s rights renaissance that started during COVID and spilled over into 2021 and into Glenn Youngkin’s election over Terry McAuliffe in 2021 and continues unabated in so many states across this country," Conway said, noting that since the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered schools at the request of the teachers’ unions, there "are a higher number of people running for school board, and you have more parents engaged in choices of schools and character of curricula." 

"There is a need for a charismatic and compelling leader to take this on," Conway said, referring to Trump. 

Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to the president and White House adviser (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

By December 2020, Trump signed an executive order to expand education opportunities for American children and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That order offered flexibility to provide children with emergency K-12 scholarships to access in-person learning opportunities – an effort to provide an in-person learning option after prolonged school closures. 

The Trump administration also invested nearly $1.5 billion in the development of public charter schools and, under his tax reform bill, made it possible for parents to withdraw up to $10,000 tax-free per year from 529 education savings plans to cover public, private, or religious K-12 schooling costs. 

"President Trump says this is the civil rights issue of our time, and it is true, but also, when you look at the sheer numbers of charter schools and school choice scholarship recipients and even the alternatives, like homeschooled students – and that is still a growing piece – but parents want to take things into their own hands. They know their children best," Conway said. "If Trump is re-elected, this is going to be a biggie." 

As for the word "choice," Conway said the left "wants to own that word" but only when it relates to abortion.

"The Democrat Party really only wants to talk to women from the waist down, whereas, these parents of school-aged children want people to talk to them from the waist up – their eyes, ears, brain and hearts – and that includes them giving choices," she said. "We should not be ceding the word ‘choice’ and the idea that women have a right to choose to the left based on abortion. It should be, women have a right to choose where their children go to school and what is taught there."

But Democrats believe school choice is anti-public schools – something Conway pushed back on – and argue that it would take funding away from teachers and schools themselves. 

"It is just about competition," she said. "You can customize your coffee 14,000 different ways at Starbucks. You can get Amazon to deliver anything to your home this afternoon. And yet, you are stuck with one choice for school." 

She added: "It is like shopping in a Soviet Safeway for your child’s education, and it makes no sense, and it does not match the rest of the way we live our lives." 

The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to Fox News' request for comment. 

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.