Comparing the education policy proposals from Harris and Trump

The issue of education in America has barely been discussed in this campaign, despite there being very sharp differences between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on how best to teach children into the future. William Brangham looks into their positions on K-12 education for our promises and policies series.
Amna Nawaz:
The issue of education in America has barely been discussed in this campaign, despite there being very sharp differences between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on how best to teach America’s kids into the future.
William Brangham has been looking into their positions on K-12 education for our Promises and Policies series, and he joins us now.
Good to see you, William.
William Brangham:
Hi, Amna.
Amna Nawaz:
So education policy has not at all been a major focus of this campaign season. Do you have a sense of why that is?
William Brangham:
On some level, I think it’s a reflection of the electorate, and the polls show that the economy and immigration are top issues, I mean, for Democrats, also the worry about democracy.
I mean, at both the vice presidential and presidential debate, not one question asked about education, not one answer or issue offered about it, except for a brief mention of school shootings, which is kind of the opposite of education.
It is striking, though, given we are seeing this drop in the ability of fourth graders and eighth graders to do basic math and to read at a grade level, that this is not more of a national issue. When education is being discussed in this campaign, it is most often the things that Donald Trump has been focusing on.
And that’s, number one, the fight over school curriculums and the teaching specifically of history and race and gender and the fight over school choice and whether parents should have public school money to do with as they please.
Amna Nawaz:
So let’s just talk about where each of the candidates stand then. Let’s start with former President Trump.
What are his plans for education if he were to win reelection?
William Brangham:
Trump has some contradictory ideas on this front. On one hand he says, I want to destroy, get rid of the Department of Education, which is the primary way that a president could enact education policy.
Republicans have talked about doing this for years. It goes back to Reagan. When Trump was president, he tried to do it. Didn’t work. So that’s, one, his stated goal, to get out of the federal government being involved in education, let parents handle it.
But then he also wants to have very granular attention to what is being taught in schools. I mean, he says he wants his education secretary to examine the curriculum of tens of thousands of public schools around the country to make sure they’re not teaching what he says is woke ideology.
He talks a lot about this, that public schools are somehow brainwashing children and that he’s going to cut their money if they do that. Now, presidents don’t necessarily have that power, but this is something he talks about a lot.
One extreme example of this, Donald Trump has repeatedly sketched out this nonexistent scenario where a child goes to school in the morning, and somehow school officials do some sort of procedure to change that child’s gender and sends home — again, without the parents’ consent, and sends home a different child at the end of the day.
Again, there is no evidence of this kind of a thing happening, but this is often how he talks about these things. Here’s him speaking to a group of Christian leaders.
Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: On day one, I will sign an executive order banning schools from promoting Critical Race Theory or transgender insanity.
(Cheering)
Donald Trump:
I will take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology and reaffirm that God created two genders, male and female. I will keep men out of women’s sports.
Amna Nawaz:
So, William, you also mentioned school choice. We know that’s something former President Trump has been a big proponent of, and that was something he pushed for when he was president, right?
William Brangham:
Exactly.
This is the idea of letting parents take taxpayer school funded money and pay for private school or religious school or use it for homeschooling. Betsy DeVos, his previous education secretary, tried to do this. It was — failed at doing that. Trump also wants to give parents the ability to fire teachers and to reduce tenure protections.
Again, these are not a lot of things that the presidents have power to do, but Trump is clearly signaling here that he wants to get the federal government out of this, he wants to put parents back in charge, and that he will be some sort of federal enforcer.
Amna Nawaz:
OK. So that’s former President Trump.
Let’s talk about Vice President Harris. As we said, this is not a central issue to her campaign. But what do we know about her plans if she were to be elected president?
William Brangham:
When Harris talks about education policy, she’s most often talking about the things that Donald Trump is proposing and how much she dislikes them.
For example, she very much thinks eliminating the Department of Education is a terrible idea. She wants to strengthen its two main funding streams. That’s money to educate low-income kids and disabled children. She regularly sides with teachers, saying, I want to boost your pay. She tried to propose that earlier in her previous campaign.
She has been very critical of Trump’s attacks on curriculum around the country, specifically these 4,000-plus book bans that we have seen all over the country, many of which were enacted by Trump’s allies.
Here’s how she described these efforts when she was talking to the teachers union.
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: These extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation’s true and full history, including book bans, book bans in this Year of our Lord 2024.
So we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.
(Booing)
Kamala Harris:
Can you imagine?
Amna Nawaz:
So, William, Vice President Harris, her party as well have talked a lot about early education, how we teach very young children. So what does that look like if she’s elected?
William Brangham:
That has been one of her most concrete proposals.
Her argument has been every dollar the federal government spends on early childhood education, you reap enormous benefits throughout that child’s life, as does the U.S. economy. She’s been a big champion of Head Start, the program for low-income families. The Democratic Party platform has called for universal free preschool for kids.
Harris has been a big proponent of the child tax credit and tried to bump that up as well. Those are her proposals, but, again, a lot of her public discussion about education has been, Donald Trump has dangerous ideas that will set back the cause of education in America.
Amna Nawaz:
All right, William Brangham with a closer look at both candidates on education.
William, thank you.
William Brangham:
You’re welcome, Amna.